In too Deep ((Sterek 1))
by Kara Burch
Summary: As the unlikely duo try and figure out what's going on in their town their lives become more entangled then they ever imagined. What started as a temporary friendship develops into so much more, and they don't really even know how to define what's happening, just that neither of them mind it all that much. (Unedited, may be a few mistakes.) Please Write Reviews. :)
1. Chapter One: The Suspicion

**Chapter One**

 **The Suspicion**

 _*Stiles_

Stiles sighed softly pacing in his room, his phone clutched in his hand. He's overheard, okay eavesdropped, into several of his dad's phone calls, and he knows somethings going on. Not just a serial killer or accidents, he knows it's supernatural. He's just debating whether or not he should call Scott, his best friend, and someone who left town to stay out of this stuff. "Damn it" he muttered and flopped down onto his bed. Just as he was about to just say fuck it and call Scott, another name popped into his head, Derek. "No... no way" he muttered, not wanting to work with him. They never really got along that well after all. He looked down at his phone a moment before sighing and standing up. "Damn it," he muttered again before grabbing the keys to his jeep.

Stiles drove to Derek's new place, since the one he had been staying in had been torn down. He parked on the side of the street and looked up at the place. He tapped on his steering wheel, seriously thinking about turning around and just calling Scott. Then he again remembered his friend saying that he needed to get away from all this craziness. After what happened to Allison, he's been kind of done with it all. So with a disgruntled sigh and a bit of grumbling he killed the engine of his jeep and climbed out.

Stiles went into the building and all the way up the stairs to the door to Derek's place. He stood out there for several moments before knocking. _No turning back now_ , he just hoped Derek wouldn't think he was crazy. He definitely wasn't crazy, he knew there had to be something going on. And if Derek didn't care or didn't believe him, he'd just have to call Scott. Or Peter... _no definitely would have to call Scott._

Derek sighed when he heard a knock at his door, knowing it was Stiles before he even opened it. He heard his piece of crap jeep before he even turned onto the street. "What do you want Stiles?" he asked as he opened the door and stared down at the younger man. It wasn't that he didn't like the guy, well sort of, but he was actually sort of looking forward to having all the teenagers out of his hair once they went off to college.

Stiles smiled small, "Hey Derek," he said and kind of slid slash pushed his way into his place, as if Derek had opened the door politely. Though honestly Derek would have been able to stop him if he wanted to. "I need your help," he said and looked around the studio apartment before turning around and looking at Derek again. "It's happening," he said and sighed softly. "Weird stuff is going on and, well, you're the only person around who can help" He said with a small smile. Then, before Derek could interrupt or tell him to leave, he started with his explanation. "People have been going missing and have been popping up dead all over the place, their throats ripped out... and we both know werewolves like doing that," he said, mumbling the last part as he remembered when Derek not so kindly asked him to start his Jeep back up. "But it's not just that, they have this weird symbol carved into their backs, kind of looks like the tattoo on your's," he said and pulled out the pictures he had in his bag. He held them out to Derek, not even sure the werewolf was listening to him anymore, or if he believed or cared about what he was saying. Didn't matter though, he'd have to throw him out, because he wasn't going to leave willingly until he agreed to help.

Derek gritted his teeth slightly as Stiles spoke, though to be honest it was hard not to crack a smile when Stiles mumbled under his breath about the time he threatened to rip his throat out. He sighed softly and looked over the human boy standing in front of him, he could smell the determination leaking off of him and see it all over his face as well. He could tell that he wasn't going to leave without a fight and since he didn't feel like hurting him, yet, he nodded and took the pictures. He looked them over slowly "Got any suspects?" he asked, knowing the know-it all probably did.

Stiles smiled nervously, "Well... uh... just... Peter... and um... you," he said and shrugged slightly when Derek gave him a death glare. "What?" he asked a bit exasperated. "What am I supposed to think uh, mister grumpy and brooding all the time?" he said and gave him a look before walking over to the couch and flopping down on it. "If it makes you feel any better, you're at the bottom of the list," he offered with a smirk.

"Being at the bottom of your list of two, yeah totally makes me feel better," Derek said and rolled his eyes before walking over to the couch and sitting on the opposite end. "I don't know what to tell you, Stiles," he said and handed the pictures back over to the teen. "I don't even know what you're here for," he said.

"Muscle of course," Stiles said with a smirk and nodded slightly. "I tried contacting Deaton but he's out of town and I don't have his number. I don't want to bother Scott, he just doesn't want to be part of any of this anymore." he said and sighed softly. "Now while you're not my last choice, you are my only choice" he said with a smile. "I want to figure this out, stop the killings" he said.

"Let the police do their jobs Stiles, it's what they're there for," Derek said and stood up, planning on shooing Stiles out now. He heard the story and now he was done.

Stiles sighed and stood up as well, "Oh come on, we both know a human didn't do this and if the police tried to catch them they'd just end up dead," he said and looked over at Derek. "Please Derek" he pleaded with a frown. "How do you think I got most of this info? My dad's on this case, I've been listening in on his calls and following him out to the crime scenes," he said, obviously not feeling guilty about either of those admissions. He looked at Derek, trying to say that he didn't want his dad to get killed because of this, without actually saying it.

Derek sighed, god this kid was a real pain in his ass, "Fine, I'll help you," he said and shoved the boy towards the door. "Come back tonight, we'll check out the latest crime scene" he said and then pushed the boy out the door and closed it before he could say anything else.

Stiles smiled, "Thank you!" he called from the other side of the door before hurrying down the stairs and out to his jeep. He climbed into the driver's seat and sped down the road back towards his house. He could actually relax now, he knew he'd have help. Though if he were being honest, even if Derek had refused to help he wouldn't have stopped searching for answers. He was already invested, and, well, he could be a little obsessive when it came to figuring out cases.

When he got to his room, Stiles tossed his bag on his bed and pulled out the photos. He brought them over to his desk and spread them out on the surface. He examined each one over and over again, wanting to see if he missed anything. He really didn't have much to go on yet, so any small detail would be helpful. After a while of not seeing anything though, he gave up and started taping them up on his wall instead. It was kind of a gruesome thing to do, but how else was he suppose to make an evidence wall? He highly doubted that Derek would allow him to do it at has place, so this was all he had.

When he finished, he let out a soft sigh, backed up, and sat down on his bed. He stared at the pictures for a few moments, knowing he'd have to keep his father out of his room. Though he knew about werewolf stuff now, he didn't exactly approve of his son continuing to be involved. Though to be honest, he should probably move out soon anyway. He'd need a job first, that wasn't likely to happen anytime soon.

 _*Derek_

Derek sighed softly as he listened to Stiles's jeep pull away from the curb and go down the road. He ran a hand through his hair as he thought about how he was suppose to help Stiles, skinny, defenseless Stiles. He shook his head slightly and sat down on the couch, he should have just told him to get lost, but he knew Stiles well enough to know that he wouldn't give up on it just because he didn't have a werewolf to back him up, bastard was stubborn like that.

Though to be honest, with everything that's happened in the past few years could he even really describe Stiles as defenseless anymore? No, after the nogitsune he's been different, he didn't know if anyone else noticed it, but he has. He can smell the guilt rolling off of him every once in awhile, which kind of bothered him because Stiles had nothing to feel guilty about. He didn't do anything wrong, it was the nogitsune, not him.

Derek shook his head, tired of thinking about the sarcastic teen and his problems. So instead, he thought about what the boy had said and the pictures he showed him. The faster they solved this and caught the guy, the quicker he could get rid of Stiles. He tried to think of any possible suspects other than Stiles' narrow list of him and his uncle. It wouldn't be hard to believe that his uncle had started going on another killing spree, but what would the reason be? At least last time it was a revenge type of thing, even if it was misled and completely psychotic.

Derek couldn't think of anyone and just contemplating about it wouldn't get him anywhere. So before he had to go out to the crime scene with Stiles, he needed to do a few more things. A small investigation he could handle by himself, and preferably by himself, which was why he was excluding the human sidekick from it.

 _*Stiles_

While Stiles waited for the sun to set he ordered a pizza, though he could only eat a few pieces of it, and had to put the rest away. He was just too anxious about going out to the crime scene with Derek and to be honest, he wasn't exactly the most patient person in the world. He just wanted to be out there already, but he knew that was a bad idea. There were probably cops out there right now, collecting evidence, that he'd later have to steal the information on from his dad; which he really didn't feel bad about, because he knew that he was, in his own way, trying to protect his dad. He couldn't handle this type of case on his own, and he wouldn't be able to take it if he lost his dad. He'd have no one.

* * *

When it was finally time to go, Stiles felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out to see it was a text from Derek.

' _Get your ass over here.'_

Stiles rolled his eyes as he read the text message before sending one back.

' _Be right there Sourwolf'_

Stiles laughed softly because he knew the werewolf hated the nick-name he gave him so many years ago. He shook his head slightly before climbing into his jeep and pulling out of the driveway. His dad hadn't been home all day, probably working on the case, so he was a little worried about him. Then again, he knew he was probably at the station and he should be safe there. It hadn't exactly been a safe zone lately, but he doubted anyone else would put a bomb in his office. Which he immediately felt guilty for because he was technically the one that did that.

Stiles quickly shook the thoughts out of his head before everything else he did while possessed could start flooding in as well. A few moments later, he pulled up in front of Derek's building. He was about to get out, but before he could, Derek climbed in and grunted "Drive"

Stiles sighed, "Hello to you too" he said and rolled his eyes before starting his engine again and pulled away from the curb. "So what's got your panties in a twist?" he asked and looked at the very aggravated looking werewolf.

Derek sighed and looked over at Stiles for a moment. "Nothing," he lied and looked back at the road. "Just drive," he said sternly. He'd just got done talking to his uncle so he might be a little bit more moody than usual.

" _It's just a simple question!" Derek said his patience already starting to run thin. "Do you know if there is anyone in Beacon Hills that would want to be killing people?" he said, not needing to state the obvious, that this person wasn't a human._

 _Peter thought and shrugged slightly, "I don't know Derek, everyone I know is dead, well, all except for my favorite nephew," he said with a smirk._

 _Derek let out a slow breath, to keep himself from doing anything stupid, like attacking his uncle. "Fine, forget I asked then" he said and turned to leave, already tired of his uncle's shit._

" _Well there may be one thing…." Peter said and trailed off, that annoyingly arrogant smirk still plastered on his face._

 _Derek growled and turned back around to face his uncle. "And what might that be?" he asked through clenched teeth._

 _Peter's smile just grew, "I'm sorry, I just can't seem to remember, might need help jogging my memory" he said._

 _Derek growled before running at his uncle and smashing him into the wall behind him, "That enough of a reminder for you?_

 _Peter tsked "Now Derek, is that anyway to handle your anger?" he asked and pushed him off with more effort needed than the older werewolf would have liked._

 _Derek gritted his teeth. "Just tell me what you know," he said, clearly trying to control his anger._

 _Peter smiled. "See? getting better already," he said and shook out his shoulders slightly. He looked over his nephew for a moment before sighing. "I've heard a few things about a new werewolf coming to Beacon Hills, but I haven't witnessed any evidence of that yet. Not even these murders you're so worried about scream werewolf to me," he said and stepped around him. "It's probably something else entirely," he said._

" _Like what?" Derek asked and looked over at him with a glare._

 _Peter shrugged. "I don't know," he said and pursed his lips slightly. "But maybe the bestiary may be able to tell you that," he said a bit suspiciously. "do you happen to still have access to that?" he asked._

 _Derek watched his uncle for a moment before shaking his head. "No," he said and then seemed to notice how late it was. He let out a sigh. "Got to go," he said and walked around his uncle and out the door._

" _Tell Stiles hi for me," Peter called after his nephew._

Derek shook the memory away and looked over at Stiles for a moment "I talked to my uncle," he said, the tone of his voice making it evident he didn't enjoy himself. "He said it's probably not a werewolf; but you can only trust less than half of what he says, so there might not be any truth to it."

Stiles nodded slightly as he listened to Derek and smiled small. "Okay then, we can kind of look into different creatures that it could be," he said and nodded slightly. "Did he say anything else?" Stiles asked, kind of curious about what the other werewolf might have said about the situation.

Derek shrugged. "He just asked if we still had access to Gerard's bestiary," he said and looked at Stiles again. "I told him we didn't," because for all he knew they didn't. Not that he would have told his uncle the truth anyway.

Stiles nodded slightly, "You know we do, right?" he asked and looked over at Derek with a smile. "I downloaded it onto my computer before Allison gave it back to her grandpa. I was able to translate it through a lot of different websites. Might not be perfectly accurate, but it works" he said, shrugging slightly. Ever since Scott had been bitten, he was very interested in everything supernatural, even if he didn't want to become one himself. He just had to find out whatever he could, he couldn't help them out physically, so he used his other talents to help.

"Of course you did," Derek said and nodded slightly, he should have known that Stiles would have done something like that, the guy's been kind of obsessed about this stuff since the beginning.

Stiles gave Derek a look before returning his gaze to the road, he didn't say anything else, because he honestly didn't have a specific reason for doing what he did. He was just curious to be honest, and he didn't have to explain himself to Derek. Derek must have agreed with that, because he didn't say anything else either. The silence in the jeep was kind of tense as he drove to the forest, but luckily it only took a few minutes and they didn't have to endure it for every long.

When Stiles finally pulled to a stop on the side of the road, Derek jumped out and looked around. The Jeep was pulled up into the grass, a little ways off the road but still yards away from the trees that were grouped together in miles in either direction. Most of the murders were committed in the forest that was just inside the Beacon Hill's town limits, or at least that was where their bodies were found. That included the latest one, a young male named Jordan Teller.

Stiles got out and locked the doors before hurrying around the jeep to stand next to Derek, before he could just run off and leave him behind. "It's this way" he said and pulled a flashlight out of his bag, and started walking in the direction of the crime scene. He turned the flashlight on, because, unlike the werewolf walking next to him, he couldn't see in the dark.

Derek could smell which way the crime scene was before the human told him. He could also tell it wasn't a human who killed the poor guy, it was definitely something different. Though like Peter had said earlier, he wasn't sure it was a werewolf, the scent just wasn't quite right. "You were right, it wasn't a human who did this."

Stiles smiled, "Yes!" he celebrated and then looked over at Derek, who was giving him a strange look. "What?" he said with wide eyes. "Can't a person be glad to be right?" he said with a smile. "Especially when you're the one admitting it," he said and poked the guy on the arm.

Derek looked down at where Stiles poked him and then back up at the human, giving him another look. One that kind of said excuse me, he didn't like being touched and didn't appreciate being poked by the human boy.

Stiles flinched away, "I won't do it again," he said and shook his head before continuing to walk.

Derek suppressed a chuckle at Stiles' behavior and shook his head slightly before continuing to follow the boy. "Do you have anything else to tell me about his guy?" he asked, talking about the one killed at this location.

"Ummm," Stiles said as he thought a moment, "His name was Jordan Teller. He was nineteen. Just graduated from high school, and got out of a bad relationship with some chick." he said and shrugged slightly. "My dad's file said that he was going to join the Airforce, and was actually going to leave for basic in a few weeks. And as far as I can see, he has no connection to any of the other victims," he said and looked around for a moment before he stopped walking completely. "This was where they found the body," he said and turned to look at Derek.

Derek nodded slightly, he sniffed the air a few times before growing tense. "Stiles run" he yelled and looked around for the source of the smell. It was way too potent for the creature not to be here now, but why couldn't he hear it?

Before Stiles had the chance to say anything or to even turn to run, something dropped down from the trees, landing between the two men with a snarl.


	2. Chapter Two: Figuring it Out

**Chapter Two**

 **Figuring it Out**

 _*Derek_

Derek watched as the creature jumped down between them and knew immediately that it wasn't a werewolf, he couldn't tell what the hell it was to be honest. It had shiny grey skin, large yellow glowing eyes, bat like ears, and its head was abnormally large for its lanky form. Skinny or not, it looked dangerous with its long metallic looking claws. It was like nothing he's ever seen before, but that didn't stop him from running at it, his fangs bared and his claws extended. He slashed at the creature's chest, cutting through its flesh easily. He was momentarily mesmerized by the black blood gushing out of the wound; _what the hell bleeds black blood?_

The creature took advantage of the momentary distraction and jumped at Derek, knocking him off his feet. It bared its teeth at the werewolf as it straddled him, a webbed foot placed on either side of his chest and it sneered. "Different" it hissed as it seemingly studied Derek's morphed face. It leaned in closer and took in Derek's scent. "Same" it hissed a moment later, before seemingly smelling Derek again.

Derek grimaced when the creature smelled him, and tried pushing it off. He was almost able to, but the creature hissed and grabbed his neck before he could get up and away from it. He got slammed back into the ground and he could feel the creature's claws penetrating his skin, the smell of his blood filling the air.

The creature smelled the air before licking its lips a few times revealing that it had rows of needle-like teeth, "Delicious" it hissed and leaned over Derek's body again. The creature looked as though he was about to lick him when it suddenly went limp, its body just collapsing onto Derek.

 _*Stiles_

Stiles panicked for a moment when he saw Derek go down, but then remembered the bat in his hand, he gripped it tightly and took a few steps closer, not sure if this was really going to be a good idea or not. When he finally decided to just go for it, it looked like for moment he wouldn't even need to. Derek had it taken care of, of course he did, he was Derek. Then it went south and he was being pinned down again, so without even thinking about it he ran at the creature and hit him on the back of the head as hard as he could, and luckily it was enough to knock the creature out. He watched as the thing collapsed onto Derek as limp as a rag doll. He whooped with success "That was awesome!" he said with a goofy smile and hurried over to Derek to help him up.

"Shut up" Derek grunted as he pushed the creature off of him and took the boy's helping hand. He pulled himself up onto his feet and looked down at the thing that had attacked them. He growled for a moment before extending his claws, "Might as well kill it while it's out" he said and looked at Stiles for a moment before turning back to the creature. He stared for a moment before pushing the thing onto its back and slashing it's throat with his claws.

Stiles had wanted to protest but couldn't bring himself to. He wasn't Scott, he didn't believe that everyone could be saved. This thing, whatever it was, killed dozens of people. Whatever Derek decided to do he'd stand behind, it was better than letting the thing live. Before he knew it, there was the sickening sound of Derek's claws cutting through the creature's flesh, it's black blood gushing everywhere. He couldn't watch so he looked away and walked over to a nearby tree, wanting to be away from the creature in general. "So does that mean it's done then?" he asked and glanced at Derek, who was wiping his hands off in the grass.

Derek looked over the creature, "Has it ever been that easy before?" he asked skeptically and looked over at Stiles as he brought his hand to his neck and felt the lacerations the creature caused.

Stiles shook his head slightly, "No, definitely not," he said and looked down at the lifeless thing lying before them, "But it's dead, right?" he asked, wondering it Derek could hear a heartbeat.

Derek nodded slightly, and pulled his hand away when he felt the wounds had healed completely. "Yeah it's dead; I can't hear a heartbeat or anything." he said before sighing "You wouldn't happen to have a shovel in that shit Jeep of yours, would you?" he asked. They couldn't just leave the thing here, this was an active crime scene. They actually would have to do a lot of cleaning because he was pretty sure he bled on some of the grass. He would rather not be a fugitive again.

Stiles glared at him, "My Jeep is not shit" he snapped and walked away from the werewolf. "and yeah I do," he grumbled and walked back towards his car.

 _*Derek_

Derek stifled a laugh when the human boy got riled up by his comment about the stupid Jeep. "Whatever you say," he said with a smirk before following him back to the car. He watched as Stiles unlocked the trunk doors and waited as he dug out the shovel, hoping he had enough sense to bring more than one. He might be a werewolf but that didn't mean he was going to do all the work.

"Here," Stiles grumbled and thrust a shovel at him, guess he was still mad about his comment, not that Derek cared. It also looked like the kid was smart enough to bring more than one, cause he was carrying one as well.

"Thanks," Derek said and flashed a smile before turning to walk back to where they left the creature. Before they could even walk two steps, though, there was a deafening screech.

"What the hell was that?!" Stiles said, and Derek could hear his heartbeat pick up with panic as he froze and started looking around.

Derek was about to say he had no idea when he saw the creature crouched down off in the distance. Blood dripped from the still gaping wound in its neck before it gave another blood curdling scream and then was gone.

Derek cursed and ran after it, but he couldn't hear anything. Sure he heard Stiles scrambling behind him, but nothing else. So with a frustrated sigh, he stopped walking and roughly grabbed Stiles and kept him from moving as well. "I can't hear anything over you, you idiot" he snapped angrily and shoved him to the ground before focusing his hearing. He still couldn't hear anything though, how was it possible that the thing moved quick enough to already be out of hearing distance? He swore under his breath and looked around, but the creature was nowhere to be seen. He glared at Stiles for a moment, blaming him for it getting away. He shook his head slightly before walking away from the human and back toward the Jeep.

Stiles pushed himself up off the ground and grumbled angrily as he walked back towards the Jeep. He glared at Derek a moment before picking up his shovels and bag. He tossed them in the back of the Jeep before climbing into the driver's seat and starting the car. Then he uncharacteristically remained silent the whole drive back to Derek's place, he knew it was a bad idea to involve him. _The asshole was impossible to work with._

Derek could smell how pissed off Stiles was, and he actually kind of felt bad about pushing him to the ground now, not that he would ever admit that. He gave the human a small glance before climbing out of the car, barely having enough time to close the door before Stiles pulled away. _Yeah, tonight was definitely going to bite me in the ass later._

Derek sighed softly before turning around and walking back up to his loft. After a night like tonight he was definitely ready for bed. He slipped his shirt off over his head and tossed it aside before taking his jeans off as well. Once he was in nothing but his boxers, he walked over to his bed and crawled under the covers. He stared up at the ceiling, going over the night's events for almost an hour before sleep finally overtook him.

 _*Stiles_

Stiles sighed softly as he pulled into the driveway of his house, his dad's car still nowhere in sight. He must still be at the police station, which wasn't unusual; he had a lot of late nights there. He climbed out of his car and limped towards his house, something he'd hid from Derek. The werewolf already thought he was weak, didn't need to give him another reason to think it. Besides, it didn't hurt that bad and he also didn't want him to know that it had happened when he pushed him down, because that would have just been great.

Stiles hurried up to his room and tossed his bag on his bed again. Then he just went to the bathroom and stripped out of his clothes. He tossed in the dirty clothes hamper before stepping into the shower. He let the hot water run over his body for a moment before lathering some soap in his hands and starting to wash himself.

Stiles finished with his shower and quickly dried off before walking to his room with a simple towel wrapped around his waist. He dropped the towel once in his room though, and pulled on a clean pair of boxers before grabbing his sweat pants and pulling them on as well. He then climbed into his bed and climbed under the covers. Sleep overtook him quickly, only a few thoughts of the night going through his head.

* * *

The next morning, Stiles woke up with a groan, really not wanting to get up but knowing that he had to. Well, he didn't have to,he didn't have anything to do other than trying to figure out what was going on around town. He wasn't looking forward to working with Derek again, but he knew he still had to. He'd just end up getting himself killed if he didn't have the werewolf's help.

Stiles pushed himself out of bed and begrudgingly walked over to his dresser and started getting dressed for the day. He pulled on a simple pair of blue jeans and white t-shirt, with a small flannel over jacket on. Then he kind of tiredly stumbled out of his room and over to the bathroom. Where he brushed his teeth and styled his hair, making himself look at least sort of presentable.

Stiles finished up in the bathroom before going downstairs and into the kitchen. He pulled the pizza box from last night out of his fridge and ate about five slices before putting the remaining ones away. Then with a sigh, he grabbed his stuff and headed out the door. His dad's car still wasn't in the driveway, and Stiles wasn't even sure if he had come home last night. That had happened before as well, but it was pretty rare.

Stiles pulled to a stop in front of Derek's building a few minutes later, he was again just sitting there, lightly tapping his fingers on the steering wheel; trying to decide if it was a good idea to even go up there at all. As much as he wanted to figure it out, and as much as he needed the help, last night really hadn't gone well and he would really rather not have a repeat of that. Then again, he'd have to talk to him eventually, and sooner was better than later.

Stiles climbed out of his truck and made his way up to Derek's loft, he knocked on the door softly and waited for the Sourwolf to answer it.

 _*Derek_

Derek grumbled when he heard the Jeep pull up the road. He pushed himself out of bed and went to look out the window. He saw Stiles sitting in his Jeep and he could tell from all the way up here that the boy didn't really want to come up. "Great," he mumbled before getting dressed in his usual dark colored theme. Just as he finished pulling on his leather jacket, he heard a knock at his door. "Guess he decided to come up after all," he grumbled before walking over to the door and opening it. "Hello Stiles,"

Stiles smiled before walking into the apartment and over to the couch. "I brought my laptop so we can look over the bestiary" he said getting right to it. He pulled out his laptop and started tinkering on it.

Derek sighed and nodded slightly, "and you couldn't do that on your own, why?" he asked as he walked over and sat down at as well.

Stiles rolled his eyes, "It will go faster if we both look," he said and pulled a older looking laptop out of his bag and handed it to Derek. "It's on there as well. It's my old one so it might be a little slow," he said.

Derek nodded slightly and turned the thing on before looking at Stiles again, "Am I just suppose to know where it is on this thing?" he asked.

Stiles sighed softly and looked over at Derek. "It'll be right there on the desktop," he said and looked back at his own screen. "Think you could handle that?" he asked a bit sarcastically.

Derek sighed and waited for the computer to finish turning on. Sure enough, it was right there on the desktop, like he said it would be. 'Bestiary' in big letters. He doubled clicked on the icon and started searching for everything he noticed about the creature last night. There was a surprisingly large number of creatures with similar features and traits. It took them hours before they even came close to narrowing it down to just a few.

"I think it may be an Ahzi," Stiles said and looked over at Derek with a smile. "It has the same features as the thing we came across last night and it also says here that it's movements are completely undetectable by hearing, but that it has a very distinctive smell" he said, though he hadn't actually smelled anything, probably because he was a human. "Also says here that's it's not actually a shifter like you. It's a type of phantom or some legends say demon" he said and skimmed the passage a little more. "the translation here is a little funky, but it says something about needing to be summoned, that it's controlled, relatively anyway, by someone," he said and frowned slightly before looking at Derek. "So anyone could have summoned that thing, if that's even what it is," he said and sighed with frustration.

Derek nodded slightly. "Does it say anything else?" he asked, because he wanted to make sure they had the right creature and it had to match everything for them to be sure.

Stiles nodded slightly, "Yeah, it talks about it bleeding black blood," he said and looked over the passage again for anything he might have missed. "Though it does say here that the summoner has to have some link to the supernatural, so it can't just be a human," he said, glad about that. It at least narrowed the list a bit, Derek could sniff out other supernaturals. "But I don't know about the rest, really confusing" he said and sighed softly. "We should really try and get a hold of Deaton. He would probably be able to make better sense of it," he said and pulled out his phone, thinking about calling Scott and asking if he had a number for Deaton, though that would just raise questions and he didn't want him to get involved.

Derek nodded, agreeing with him even though there really isn't a way to get in touch with the vet unless he wanted you to. He was a very mysterious man and he still didn't completely trust him, he didn't care if Scott and his mother both guy was just weird. "Let's go check out the clinic one more time before calling Scott," he said, because he saw Stiles staring at his phone and, well, there was only one person who might have Deaton's phone number.

Stiles nodded slightly and shoved the phone back in his pocket "Let's go," he said and shut down his laptop before standing up and shoving it in his bag. He did the same to the one Derek had been using before walking out the door and down to his Jeep.

"Someone's in a hurry," Derek muttered under his breath and followed the human out of his building and out to the crap Jeep. He got into the passenger seat and buckled up before Stiles pulled out into the street and drove towards the clinic. "When did you go and see if he was around?" he asked.

"Umm, about four days ago," Stiles said and nodded slightly. "Yeah, I did a lot of debating about calling Scott before your name popped into my head" he said and shrugged slightly.

Derek nodded "I see," he said a bit thoughtfully and looked back at the road, letting the rest of the ride to the clinic be silent, didn't have anything else to say.

 _*Stiles_

Stiles took Derek's cue and remained quiet for the rest of the drive. It wasn't as tense this time, which was good. When he finally pulled to a stop in the clinic's parking lot, he killed the engine and got out. He examined the dark building before walking over to the door. He peered into the glass door for a moment before trying to open it. "Locked," he said and shrugged slightly, turning around to see Derek walking towards him. He sighed softly and leaned back against the door. "Now what?" he asked.

Derek shrugged "I don't know. Call Scott I guess," he said, though he hoped Stiles had enough sense to lie to him. Derek didn't need Scott down here getting into trouble as well.

Stiles nodded slightly and was about to pull his phone out to do just that when the door suddenly opened and he was falling backwards. "Oh god!" he gasped and looked down at his chest to see Derek holding onto his shirt.

Derek heard the door creak before it actually opened, giving him time to grab onto Stiles before he fell through the doorway and hurt himself. He clutched his shirt and let him hang for a moment before pulling him back up to stand on his feet. Then without even saying anything he pushed past the human and into the Clinic. "Hello," he called, able to clearly hear a heartbeat now.

Stiles ran in after him, nearly running into Derek, stopping himself just before colliding with the bigger man. "Do you hear anything?" he whispered.

"Yes, I suppose he does Stiles," came a voice from the back room. A moment later, Deaton walked into the front from the back and stood behind the mountain ash counter. "But it's nothing to worry about I assure you," he said with a smile. "Though I do believe we have a problem."


	3. Chapter Three: Ahzi?

**Chapter Three**

 **Ahzi?**

 _*Stiles_

Stiles stared at Deaton a moment, "You know about the creature?" he asked, wondering how he could know when he just got back into town.

Deaton chuckled softly and nodded "Yes Stiles, I know about the creature. Come on back and we can discuss it more," he said and gently pushed open the door on the counter, to allow Derek in, since he wouldn't have been able to do it himself.

Stiles eyed the doctor for moment before following Derek into the back room, closing the door behind him. "Any idea what it is?" he asked and looked at the vet.

Deaton smiled, "No not yet, but I'm sure the two of you have a few ideas, otherwise you wouldn't be here," He said and looked between them expectantly.

Stiles pursed his lips slightly before letting out a sigh, "Yeah, we have an idea," he said and dropped his bag onto the operating table between them. "I still had a copy of Gerard's bestiary. I translated most of the passages, not exactly accurate though." he said and pulled out his laptop and turned it on.

"Which is why you're here, correct?" Deaton inquired.

Stiles nodded slightly, "Yeah, we think it's an Ahzi," he said and pulled up the passage on the creature. "But the translation gets kind of jumbled, so we don't know if that's actually what it is or not" he said and shrugged slightly. "Been the closest so far, though," he said.

Deaton nodded slightly and read over the passage for a moment, "You are correct Stiles, this translation is very jumbled" he said with a small smile. He stood up straight and walked into his office for a moment. "Lucky for you, I happen to know what an Ahzi is," he said and came out, carrying a small leather covered book. "It's a mythical creature said to have originated from a time when Darachs needed someone or something to do their dirty work for them. So, they took a bunch of humans and sacrificed them. Twenty four hours later, they came back as this," he said and flipped to a page in his book to reveal a picture of a creature that looked a lot like the one they saw last night. "Look familiar?" he asked.

Both Derek and Stiles nodded, but only the latter spoke, "Is there a way to kill it?" he asked. "Cause Derek ripped it's throat out and it didn't do much," he said.

Deaton chuckled softly, "Yes Stiles, everything has at least one weakness. The trick is find out what this one's is," he said.

"And what is this thing's weakness?" Derek asked, kind of wishing the vet would just get to the point already.

"That I don't know, Mr. Hale" Deaton said and looked at Derek."It's never been recorded, though some legends say the Ahzi's heart is made of ice. It's not just cold hearted, it doesn't feel anything, for anything" he said. "I'm sure you two smart gentlemen with be able to figure something out," he said with a nod before handing Stiles the leather bound book. "Just read this, it will tell everything you need to know."

"Wouldn't it just be easier if you told us everything you know?" Derek asked, annoyed again.

"Yes, Derek, I suppose it would be, but I have other things to attend to. So if you two will excuse me," he said and kindly gestured for them to both leave.

Derek grumbled under his breath and let Stiles go first, because he wouldn't be able to get out unless he opened the counter door. Once they were back in the Jeep, he sighed softly and took the book from Stiles and started looking through it while he drove.

Stiles let Derek take the book and started the car and quickly pulled out of the driveway and drove down the road. He went back to Derek's place, and parked in that same spot as before. He killed the engine and climbed out of the truck before grabbing his bag out of the back and heading towards the building, following Derek up to his apartment.

 _*Derek_

Derek walked into his apartment and over to his couch. He flopped down before going back to reading the book. "It says here that its blood is toxic to everything that is supernatural, and for humans….." he said trailing off as he moved his gaze to the next page to read what it was, "It doesn't say-" he said and flipped the page back and forth before taking a closer look and seeing that the page he needed was torn out. He cursed under his breath and tossed the book aside. "Damn page was ripped out. That's just great," he huffed.

Stiles sighed and walked over to the couch and sat down next to Derek. He picked up the book and looked through it for a moment. "It's fine, wasn't planning on touching the stuff anyway," he said with a smile.

Derek glared at him for a moment, "Yeah and what about everything else we missed about the thing on that page," he said.

"Ummm, we'll just assume it wasn't important," Stiles said jokingly with a smile. "It was torn out it because it wasn't needed," he said. He saw Derek's glare and sighed softly, "Well what the hell else are we supposed to do? Being a Sourwolf about it won't do us any good," he said and gave him a pointed look before flipping through the pages, seeing if there was anything else interesting about this creature.

Derek felt the urge to hit him when he called him a Sourwolf, but resisted and instead just glared at him. Of course the human was right, being grumpy about it wouldn't get them anywhere. So he let his anger dissolve away and sighed softly, "What do you suggest we do then?" he asked.

Stiles smiled, "Go camping," he said and shut the book and turned to look at Derek. "The killings have been all over the place, so this thing doesn't go by full moons. We might as well stay out there for the week or something and see if we come by it again. Though this time I suggest being more prepared," he said with a small nod and stood up. "I'm going to go home and pack, see you tonight," he said and quickly left the apartment before the werewolf could say anything.

Derek chuckled softly and shook his head at the human before standing up. He definitely wasn't looking forward to a camping trip, but what Stiles said made sense. With that thought in mind, he went about his apartment and started packing whatever he thought he might need.

 _*Stiles_

Stiles ran around his room quickly packing stuff, trying to decide what he would need, other than clothes that is. He packed both his laptops, in case they needed to look something up, he had MyFi, so they would be able to connect to the internet. He doubted they'd need either of those things, though. After that, he just shoved a few more clothes into the bag and brought it out to the Jeep. Then he quickly ran into the garage and grabbed the little bit of camping supplies he had. Which was limited to a small two person tent and nothing else. So he took his pathetic little tent, went back to the jeep and tossed it into the back before getting into the driver's seat and starting the engine.

Stiles pulled to a stop in front of Derek's building a few minutes later and stared up at the building for a moment. He honked the horn twice, not even bothering to get out because he knew Derek could hear him and would be down soon. He sighed softly and and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, humming to himself as he waited.

 _*Derek_

Derek had just about finished packing when he heard the honking from the street. He sighed softly because it couldn't be anyone but the human boy he was working with. He quickly finished packing and headed out the door. He locked it behind him before walking down the stairs and out to the Jeep. He opened the passenger side door and tossed his bag in the back before climbing in. "You sure this is actually necessary?" he asked, because he still really didn't want to do this. He's only been camping once and it really didn't end well.

Stiles nodded slightly "Yeah, don't really see any other options. It's better than just going out there every single night and then going home again. No, let's just stay out there for the week and see if we can find anything. We can try and track it during the day too," he said and looked over at Derek. "It has a distinctive scent after all."

Derek nodded slightly and looked back out at the road, "I didn't bring a sleeping bag or anything," he said after a moment, thinking that he probably should have at least grabbed a pillow or a blanket off his bed.

Stiles smiled. "That's fine, I grabbed a bunch of blankets and pillows," he said and shrugged slightly. "Tent's kind of small, but it'll have to do."

"How small, exactly?" Derek asked and looked over at Stiles.

"It's made for two people," Stiles said with a smile and looked at Derek for a moment, "So small," he said with a laugh and looked back out at the road.

Derek sighed, but didn't say anything else. Instead, he just stared out the window.


	4. Chapter Four: Starting Point

**Chapter Four**

 **Starting Point**

 _*Stiles_

Stiles dropped his stuff on the ground, glad that they finally found a place to camp. They'd been walking for an hour at least and his crap was heavy, it was definitely not fun trying to lug it all the way out here. Luckily, Derek was nice enough to carry the tent for him.

Stiles let out a huff as he sat down on the ground to rest a moment before he had to set up the tent. "Did we really have to walk this far to find a camping spot?" he asked, kind of breathing heavily.

Derek chuckled softly "No, I suppose we didn't," he said and hid a smirk before dropping his bags as well. He tossed the tent over to Stiles, because he honestly had no idea how to put the thing up. "But I also didn't hear any complaints, so I figured you were good," he said.

"Rapid breathing and sped up heart rate wasn't clue enough for ya" Stiles said sarcastically with a shake of his head before he pushed himself back up onto his feet and grabbed the tent. He pulled everything out of the bag and went about setting it up. "Looked like you knew where you were going," he said and looked at Derek for a moment. "Come here often?" he asked, meaning when he was all wolfed out.

Derek shook his head slightly, "Nah, only once. A very long time ago" he said and shook his head slightly. "It was the first and only time I ever went camping," he smiled before sitting on the ground. "What about you?" he asked, because he honestly didn't want to talk about his experience.

Stiles nodded slightly, "Yeah but not since my mom died," he said and shrugged slightly. "We used to go out every year and make a weekend of it. My dad tried to keep it going after she got sick, and then once she was gone, but it just wasn't the same, so we just stopped doing it," he said and awkwardly started slipping the poles into place. He really wasn't very good at this either. "We used to have a bunch of camping stuff but my dad must have gotten rid of it all, cause this was all I could find," he said and shrugged slightly.

Derek nodded, remembering that Stiles' mom had died from some type of dementia, that he couldn't remember the name of. "How old were you when she died?" he asked, kind of curious.

Stiles thought a moment, "Ten," he said, it was either that or eleven. He went quiet a moment as he went back to working on putting up the tent, almost falling over a few times.

Derek chuckled softly at Stiles' attempts at putting up the tent, it was actually pretty hilarious, and kind of cute…. _wait what_? Derek shook his head slightly and let out a small sigh. "So, do you remember anything about your mother?" he asked, since Stiles had been pretty young when she died.

Stiles nodded slightly, "Yeah, I remember some," he said with a smile and walked around the tent to stake it down. He really wasn't watching where he was going though, he was kind of lost in thought about his mother. "Though a lot of my memories involve her being sick," he said with a frown, before tripping slightly over one of the corners of the tent. He swore under his breath and sighed before bending down and putting in the final stake.

Derek chuckled softly when Stiles tripped over the tent, but quickly sobered up again, since what they were talking about really wasn't something to laugh about. "What do you remember?" he asked a few moments later.

Stiles walked around the tent and sat on the ground next to his crap, "Ummm, before she got real bad she was the nicest and funniest person I knew," he said with a smile. "I mean, where do you think I got it from? Sure as hell wasn't my father. He ain't funny," he snorted and shook his head. He chuckled softly "When I was really young, she always let me sit on her lap and 'steer' when she was driving in town," he said, putting air quotes around steer, since she was still doing most of the work. "Everytime we went camping, we would light the fire and make s'mores, and once it got dark, she would tell scary stories. Every time it was a different one; and they were always so elaborate and fascinating," he said. "Just the way she spoke when she was telling them could pull you into the storyline," he said and chuckled softly. "It's been over eight years, but I still miss her," he said with a small nod. "I was there when she died, my dad wasn't though, he was working I guess," he said and shrugged slightly as he looked down at his hands for a moment. He didn't really like thinking about his mom, so he quickly changed the subject. "So what was so bad about your camping experience that you never went on another one?"

Derek chuckled at the abrupt change in subject, though he really didn't like the question that had been directed at him. "It was the night my family burned to death," he said with a small sad smile. "I was out camping with a few friends that night. That's why I wasn't in the house at the time."

Stiles frowned, "I'm sorry. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he said. "So, ummm, how old are you?" he asked curiously after several awkward minutes passed. It was the only question that had popped into his head, and, well, he was curious because all he knew was that Derek was a few grades ahead of them.

"I'm Twenty three," Derek said with a small smile, glad for the change in subject and that the awkward silence was over.

"Uh…. five years older," Stiles said and pursed his lips slightly. "For some reason, I thought you'd be older than that," he said and shrugged slightly..

"Gee thanks Stiles, means a lot," Derek said sarcastically.

Stiles laughed softly before standing up and grabbed all the blankets and pillows that he brought and crawled into the tent. He quickly made the beds 'cause he didn't have anything else to do at the moment, but talk to Derek. "You wanna go and get some wood for the fire?" he asked. He knew the werewolf would be able to carry a lot more than he could.

"Yeah, sure," Derek said and stood up before walking away from their camping site and walking into the trees to find sticks for them to burn. It didn't take him long to get an armful of sticks, in varying sizes, which he was actually kind of glad about. Once he got about as much as he could possibly carry, he brought them back to the camp and dropped them on the ground. He looked around for a moment before shoving all their stuff aside and starting to dig a bit of a hole for the fire. It would be easier to burn that way.

Stiles saw Derek digging the hole and couldn't help but laugh, because he immediately pictured a dog digging a hole in the back yard. He was tempted to say something about it, but he kind figured the werewolf would just threaten to rip his throat out or something. So instead he went down the safer route, "What you doing?" he asked, having to resist another laugh.

Derek looked up at Stiles and just looked at him a moment, kind of guessing what the human was thinking and he didn't like it, "Just making a hole for the fire" he said not explaining himself farther. He quickly finished with the hole and started piling some dry leaves and small twigs at the bottom, before putting the bigger ones on top. "you got a light?" he asked and looked up at the human boy again.

"Oh yeah…... just a second" Stiles said and turned around and studied his bags for a moment before quickly dropping next to one . He looked through the smaller pockets until he found what he was looking for. He made a sound of success as he pulled the lighter out and smiled happily before tossing it over to Derek. "You know what you're doing?" he asked.

Derek nodded, "Yes Stiles," he said and rolled his eyes before lighting the lighter and moving it over the leaves and smaller twigs that he had put at the bottom. Once they were burning, he pulled his hand away and put the lighter in his pocket. "See," he said and gave him a pointed look.

Stiles chuckled, "Okay, Okay, I'm sorry I ever doubted you, oh King of Fire," he said and bowed sarcastically.

Derek rolled his eyes and shook his head slightly before leaning back. "Did you bother bringing food in all that crap you brought?" he asked, since he knew he didn't. He figured the kid would have it covered since it was his idea. That, and he really didn't have that much food in his house.

Stiles froze at the question and looked around. "Uhhhhhh….. noo," he said immediately feeling immensely stupid for it. "Didn't even think of bringing food," he said, sitting down with a huff. "Damn it," he was actually very angry at himself for being so stupid.

Derek chuckled. "Don't worry about it," he said and stood up. "Give me the keys to the jeep" he said holding out his hand. "You stay here and I'll run out and get some" he said with a smile. "It'll be quicker if you don't come with."

Stiles grumbled a moment before handing him his keys, knowing that he was right; He would just slow the werewolf down. "Fine, but if I find one scratch I swear to god-"

"What, you'll make a fur coat out of me?" Derek asked, remembering Stiles had threatened Isaac with something similar a few years ago.

"You know what? , that is exactly what I'll do," Stiles said and looked at him a moment. "Will give it to Lydia as a birthday present," he said with a laugh, also remembering the threat.

Derek chuckled and shook his head slightly before walking away from the clearing and the human boy and into the trees. Once out of sight he started running, faster than any human could ever possibly imagine running.

Stiles watched him go before crawling closer to the fire, still mad at himself about forgetting about food. He shook his head slightly, refusing to think about it anymore, Derek had it covered. So, with that thought in mind, he pulled out his computer and turned on his myfi before surfing the web for anymore legends on the Ahzi.

After about a half an hour of not finding anything, he gave up and put his laptop and the myfi away. He kind of wondered where Derek was, thinking that he probably should have been back by now. Then again, he could still just be at the store. They did need a week's worth of food after all.

"Hello?" called a feminine voice from across the clearing.

Stiles jumped at the sudden voice, he hadn't heard her coming, which was weird even he should be able to hear a human walking through the forest. He looked up and saw a beautiful, red haired women. She was wearing hiking boots and a pair of very short khaki shorts and a light blue tank-top. "Uh, hey," he said nervously and stood up.

The women smiled and walked over to him, "I'm sorry, didn't mean to spook you. Just was on a hike and kind of got lost. You think you could help me?" she asked with a dazzlingly kind smile.

Stiles admired her beauty for a moment before nodding, "Uh yeah," he said and turned around and pointed at the way him and Derek came in. "Just go straight that way and you'll make it to the road in about an hour," he said and turned back to the beautiful girl.

She smiled. "Thank you!" she said. "And my name is Josie, by the way," she said and held out her hand for a hand-shake.

Stiles took her hand and shook it lightly. "Stiles," he said with a smile. "I hope you make it back okay," he said.

Josie nodded slightly, "Thanks, but hey you mind if I rest here for a while? Been walking for a long time."

Stiles shook his head slightly, "No, not at all," he said and gestured for her to sit down. He watched her sit before actually sitting down as well. Then they just started to talk, and he found that he actually liked her very much. Starting to think that maybe he should ask for her number before she left, unless that would be too creepy. _Would that be too creepy?_

 _*Derek_

Derek walked down the aisle grabbing random stuff that he liked and tossed them in the cart. He didn't know what Stiles liked so the human would just have to deal with whatever he got. Once he was done getting a bunch of food and different drinks he checked out, paying for it all, Stiles would definitely have to pay him back for this one. Then he drove back to his place and picked up his cooler, why he even had one he didn't quite know, but he did. He packed it in the back with everything else he got.

Derek stopped at the gas station before going back to the forest. He bought some ice, and even put a little bit of gas in the tank, since it was almost empty. He paid and then got back in the jeep and drove towards the forest. It had taken longer than he thought it would, been almost an hour actually. He just hoped Stiles hadn't been mauled by an Ahzi while he was gone.

Derek parked in the same spot as before and got out of the jeep and went around to the back. He pulled everything out and put it on the ground next to the car. Then, he dumped the ice into the cooler before pilling in all the drinks and some of the foods that needed to be at least sort of cold, thinking it would be easier to carry it all that way. Once he was done with that he tossed the garbage in the back of the jeep before locking it up. Then he piled everything into his arms and walked back to the camp. It would take a lot longer this time, probably the entire hour that it would take a human. He had a lot to carry.

* * *

Barely less than an hour later, Derek walked into the camp and set everything down next to the tent. "Didn't know what you would want, so I got a bunch of differ…." he said, trailing off when he saw the girl, sitting very close to Stiles. _God, the bitch is practically on his lap._ He glared at her for a moment before realizing what he was doing and stopped. "Who's she?" he asked.

"It's Josie," Stiles said with a slightly giddy smile. "She was out hiking and got lost. Stopped here to rest before going on the trek to the highway."

Derek nodded slightly and walked over to the fire, adding some of the sticks he'd picked up in the forest before he'd left. As he bent down, he caught a whiff of the girl and his eyes flashed blue when realized she wasn't a human. He ran through his mind why a new werewolf would be here, talking to Stiles. Before he could even fully think through it, he was acting; he grabbed the girl and slammed her into the ground, his claws lightly digging into her throat.

"What the hell Derek!" Stiles said, not understanding the guys reaction even a little bit.

"She's a werewolf, Stiles!" Derek snapped before glaring at the girl again, actually having a real reason to do so this time. "What are you doing in Beacon Hills?" he asked.

Josie squirmed under Derek. "Nothing, just visiting family," she said, fear evident in her voice.

"Did you hear that? That was the sound of you lying," Derek hissed, lifting her up slightly just to slam her back into the ground. "What are you doing in Beacon Hills?" he asked.

Stiles caught onto the link right away, Derek thought she might be the one controlling the Ahzi, and that made sense. He didn't think it was her, she seemed really nice, and he liked her, he didn't want her to be the bad guy.

"Answer the question," Derek snapped, about ready to actually hurt her. "Talk now. Or I'll rip your throat out…. with my teeth," he growled.

Josie didn't flinch under his harsh snap, instead she just smirked. "Oh Derek, always so quick with the threats, can never trust anyone, can you?" she said and sighed before morphing her face into that of a werewolf, her eyes turning a dark blood red. Then, she dug her claws into his side violently and twisted before shoving him off with ease. She jumped to her feet and looked down at him, "It's really to bad you don't have the strength to back it up," she said.

Josie walked over to Stiles her face slowly turning back into her own. She chuckled softly and smiled when she heard his heartbeat pick up. "Don't worry Stiles, I'm not going to hurt you," she said and ran her hand over his cheek slightly. "I have other plans for you," she said with a smirk.

Stiles smacked her hand away, "I'm not scared of you," he said and glared at her. Pissed that he let himself be tricked by her, guess he could join Derek's club of being into homicidal chicks now.

"Hmmmmm," Josie said as she heard his heart rate go up slightly as he spoke. "If you say so," she said and chuckled slightly before turning to look at Derek, who was had just stood up. "I thought we could be friends, but I guess not," she lied and then ran off into the trees.

Derek growled and moved to run after her, not wanting her to get away. His side wasn't completely healed yet and he couldn't move as fast as he liked to. So he really hadn't gotten that far when he heard Stiles yell.


	5. Chapter Five: Rest

**Chapter Five**

 **Rest**

 _*Stiles_

"No ,wait!" Stiles yelled and ran over to Derek to stop him. "Let her go," he said and grabbed Derek's arm. "She already beat you once, let's not make twice," he said and smiled small. "At least let yourself heal, you can track her tonight."

"We may not be able to find her later tonight," Derek snapped. "We should just take care of this now. Find her and kill her, the Ahzi will go with her," he said.

"Except you don't know that. The book never said anything about the Ahzi going back where it came from when its master dies; for all we know, it could just be let off its leash and will just go on a killing spree. Killing anything and everything it comes across," he said and looked around a moment. "Look, I want to see her dead as much as you do, but we have to think this through, okay?"

Derek hated that Stiles was right, and that he sounded a lot like Scott, though surprisingly not as annoying. "Fine," he said through gritted teeth. He looked down at his side and lifted up his shirt to look at the claw marks, he could feel it healing, but she was an alpha so it'll probably take a while for it to heal completely.

Stiles looked at the wound a moment before grimacing. "Come on, I'll patch you up back at camp," he said since they were a little ways away from the clearing. He let go of Derek's arm, having forgot that he had even been holding it, also kind of surprised that Derek hadn't glared at him or threatened him for even touching him.

There was a small tingling sensation where Stiles had been touching him, and he surprisingly found himself wanting him to put his hand back. _What the fuck is wrong with me?_ He thought to himself before following Stiles back to the camp. He sat down next to the fire with a grimace and again lifted his shirt so the human could do whatever he planned to do.

Stiles hurried over to one of his bags and pulled out the medical supplies he'd brought. Wasn't anything good, just what would be in an average first aid kit.

"You brought a first aid kit?" Derek questioned when he saw what Stiles was pulling out off his bag. "Really? Why?" he asked seeing at he healed quickly and it wasn't really needed.

"Really, you're going to ask that?" Stiles asked him pointedly and walked over to him. "I figured that one of us would get hurt eventually and I just wanted to be prepared, if it was worse than your healing could handle quickly, and hello? Squishy human here! I don't have freaky wolf healing, remember?" he said and looked at the wound again, momentarily finding himself admiring Derek's abs rather than Josie's handy work. He shook his head slightly before pouring some peroxide over the wound to clean it off. Then he wiped down the surrounding area a bit before taping the bandage to his abdomen, his fingers lingering there a little longer than necessary. "Okay, that should be good. Might help it heal faster too," he said and shrugged slightly before moving away from Derek. _What's going on with me?_ he thought to himself with a small shake of his head.

Derek smiled. "Thanks," he said and watched Stiles for a moment before laying back on the ground and closing his eyes. It was still a few hours before the sun would start to set. What they would do until then he had no idea, what they were suppose to do this entire week he wasn't sure about either. Though he supposed the could look for clues about all this crap during the day too, he didn't really know.

Stiles clicked his tongue a few times before standing up and walking over to the cooler, "So what all did you get?" he asked, since he was actually pretty hungry now. He opened the cooler up and looked through it a bit before just pulling out a bottle of water. Then he looked through the bags a bit before pulling out the bread to make himself a sandwich, it was the best he could think to do at the moment.

Derek shrugged slightly and closed his eyes, "Just a bunch of different stuff," he said, not even remembering what he all grabbed. "If you don't like it too bad," he said with a small smile. "I'll be sending the bill in the mail by the way" he said jokingly.

Stiles looked up with a shocked look, "Hey you're the one who offered to go, buddy, not me" he said.

"Yeah and this trip was your idea and you're the one who forgot to even get food," he said with a smile.

Stiles scoffed. "You could have brought food too, you know," he said with a huff and quickly finished making his sandwich before putting everything away.

Derek laughed softly. "Calm down, Stiles, I won't make you pay for all of it, just about eighty percent," he said with a smirk.

"Haha very funny, Hale," Stiles said and moved to sit next to the fire as he started eating his sandwich.

"I thought so," Derek said with a smirk. He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Stiles. "So, what exactly is the plan?" he asked.

"Well, we wait until it's dark and then try and find the Ahzi, and hopefully keep it from killing someone. From the look of the crime scenes, the people were killed there, but they weren't there willingly. I think the Ahzi finds them and then brings back to the forest to kill them." he said and took a big bite of his sandwich. He chewed it slowly, seemingly going over his plan while he did so. "And during the day, we can just walk around, especially if we didn't find the Ahzi. With your sense of smell, we might be able to find a body or something," he said.

"That's morbid," Derek mumbled and watched Stiles for a moment, his eye momentarily focused on the boy's lips as he chewed. "What do we do if we do find one?" he asked, thinking Stiles might get in trouble with his dad if he called it in.

"We look for clues ourselves first, then you make an anonymous tip before we get the hell out of there and go back to the camp."

"Why me?" Derek asked.

"Cause my Dad's the sheriff and they would probably recognize my voice," Stiles said with a smile. "I mean, I know you were a fugitive and everything, but I'm sure they won't recognize your voice. And you can always use a fake one," he said.

"Yeah, so can you" Derek said.

Stiles sighed. "What's your point?" he asked and ate the last little bit of his sandwich.

Derek shook his head slightly. "Don't have one," he said and smiled small before closing his eyes again.

Stiles grumbled slightly and shook his head. "Should get some sleep now, probably going to be up most of the night," he said and wiped his hands on his jeans before crawling into the tent and laying on the far side. He kicked off his shoes and laid back on the covers and stared up at the top of the tent. He really wasn't that tired, but he knew that he should at least try and get some rest now.

 _*Derek_

Derek watched Stiles crawl into the tent and sighed softly before standing up. He didn't plan on going to sleep but he knew the human was correct and he was sort of tired. So, after a few minutes, he gave in and crawled into the tent and saw Stiles laying on top of the covers, looking like he was asleep. So, he quietly kicked off his shoes and crawled under one of the blankets before laying out. The tent was way too small for his taste, but it was better than sleeping on the ground outside.

Derek lay on his back for a while, his eyes closed as he thought about what happened with Josie. Though honestly, he was all too aware of Stiles' shoulder pressed against his, and for whatever reason, he wasn't completely annoyed by it. He let out a soft sigh and pushed away any thoughts of Stiles and cleared his mind entirely so that he could fall asleep. After what seemed like forever, he did finally sleep.

* * *

A few hours later, Derek woke up when he felt Stiles moving around and trying to climb over him without touching him. He chuckled softly, "What are you doing, Stiles?" he asked.

Startled by the sudden voice in his ear and Stiles lost his footing and fell on Derek and kind of just laid on his chest for a moment before answering. "Uh, nothing," he looked down at him awkwardly for a moment before rolling off of him and out of the tent.

Derek chuckled softly and rolled over to fall back to sleep, the Stiles' behavior amusing him.

 _*Stiles_

Stiles woke up and looked over at Derek, to see that he was still asleep. Which wouldn't have been a problem, but he really had to go to the bathroom. He laid there for a while, until he was about to burst and just couldn't hold it in any longer.

Stiles looked over at Derek again and groaned before sitting up, _Okay how am I gonna do this?_ he asked himself and shook his head slightly before trying to crawl over Derek without actually touching him. He thought he was doing pretty well until he heard a sudden voice in his ear and he panicked. Then to make things worse his hand slipped and he fell right on top of him. He stared down at Derek awkwardly before actually talking, "Uhh nothing" he said and quickly rolled off of him and then out of the tent.

Stiles looked down and gaped when he saw the bulge in his pants, and just stared at it a moment. _Why the hell do I have a boner?_ When he heard movement in the tent he kind of panicked and quickly grabbed his shoes before running off into the trees. Once he was out of sight he quickly pulled on his shoes and looked down at his jeans again. He sighed when he saw the he no longer had a bulge, and decided that it had just been a morning wood, because he was in no way turned on by Derek. It's not like he's already been up for an hour or anything.

Stiles shook his head slightly refusing to think about it anymore and looked around a little bit before he unzipped his pants and did what he wanted to do in the first place. When he was done peeing he zipped back up and walked around a little bit, kind of avoiding going back to the camp. He knew he had too though, it was getting dark after all and they needed to head out in search of the Ahzi.

Despite not wanting to, a few minutes later, Stiles ambled back into the camp and smiled at Derek. "You ready to go?" he asked.

Derek smiled and nodded slightly. "Yeah, all set," he said and stood up. He wiped the dirt off the back of his pants and walked towards Stiles. "You alright?" he asked when he heard his heart rate pick up.

Stiles nodded slightly. "Yeah, of course I'm alright," he said and forced a smile before walking out into the trees again.

Derek had heard Stiles heartbeat speed up when he spoke but didn't press the matter. It didn't have anything to do with him so it wasn't his business, even if he was strangely worried about the human. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he did care about the boy.


	6. Chapter Six: The Closet

**Chapter Six**

 **The Closet**

*Stiles

Stiles sighed softly as he walked alongside Derek and tried to keep the thought of what happened earlier out of his head. Honestly, he was still trying to make sense of it, none of it made sense to him.

Derek looked over at the oddly quiet Stiles and frowned slightly. "You sure everything's okay?" He asked, because the human almost never shut up. It was amazing how much he could talk, to be honest.

Stiles nodded slightly. "Yeah, of course I'm fine," he said with a small smile. He still felt awkward and weird about what happened, but he decided he didn't care anymore. So he pushed it out of his mind completely and smiled brighter. "So, wolfy, which way does your nose tell us to go?" He asked jokingly.

Derek could still sense there was something wrong, but it was clear Stiles didn't want to talk about it so he dropped it, again, and smiled small. He sniffed the air a few times and shrugged slightly. "Can't smell anything yet," he said.

Stiles nodded slightly and tried to walk as quietly as he could. Since last time they went out like this Derek shoved him to the ground for being too loud. Stiles was about to ask him something else when he suddenly felt himself being pushed up against a tree with a hand over his mouth. He panicked for a second before realizing it was just Derek and he wasn't getting murdered.

Derek stopped walking when he heard several people walking through the forest, and then he of course heard what they were talking about. He cursed under his breath before shoving Stiles into a tree and covering his mouth, because the guy liked to talk. "Shhhhhh, police" he whispered close to Stiles' ear. "They're looking for a body. Someone called it in." he said.

Stiles nodded slightly, and ignored the fact that Derek's breath on his neck sent shivers down his back. He also found himself disappointed when Derek pulled away, and frowned slightly. "What are we going to do?" he asked quietly.

"Come on this way," Derek said, and ignored Stiles' question for the moment because he really didn't have a plan. He grabbed Stiles' arm a moment later and pulled him a long. He didn't really know where he was going, because they were literally surrounded by police, there was dozens, probably the whole Beacon Hills Station, all the way around them. though how they managed that he really didn't know.

Stiles stumbled slightly as Derek pulled him, but other then that he tried to remain quiet, he really didn't want to be the reason they got caught. Derek would probably kill him if that happened.

 _*Derek_

Derek kept moving, he hated how loud they were but, he also knew that the police probably couldn't hear them as well as something else might be able too. He was about to just say screw it and have them hide out in a ditch, because he could hear Stiles' breath starting to get labored, when they came to a cabin. He stopped running and stared at it for a moment before turning to Stiles.

When they finally stopped, Stiles hunched over breathing heavily, they hadn't really been running, more like jogging, but it was still a long distance. He looked up when he felt Derek's eyes on him and sighed softly when he saw the cabin. "Looks like a good place to hide," he said and looked around for a moment. "The police still close?" he asked quietly.

Derek nodded slightly and pulled him towards the cabin without actually saying anything. He opened the door, glad to find that it wasn't locked, and dragged Stiles inside. He closed the door quietly behind them before turning around to look at the cabin. It looked horrible, like hadn't been used for years. Honestly, it looked a lot like the inside of his burned down house, just without the scorch marks, and this one actually had a roof. He was about to say something to Stiles when he heard the police just outside the cabin.

Stiles cursed under his breath when he heard the police just outside the cabin. He might not have super hearing, but they weren't exactly being quiet. He moved closer to Derek. "What are we going to do?" he asked so quietly he wasn't even sure he'd heard him.

Derek didn't answer Stiles at first, because he really had no idea, and since he could hear that they were planning on searching the cabin he had to figure it out quick. It wasn't like they couldn't be found by the police, it would just be really inconvenient, having to be brought down to the station and held for questioning. He'd probably become a person of interest again, because of his past. Nope, there was no way he was going to let that happen, so he looked around the cabin, for anything they could hide in. He smiled small when he saw there was a closet, wasn't the best option, but it was really the only one they had. So Derek grabbed Stiles and pulled him over to the closet, he opened the door and pushed the human inside before stepping inside as well. He closed the door behind him before looking around for something to hold the door shut.

Derek couldn't find anything and it was dark so Stiles wouldn't be of any help in that situation. Though to be honest, there wasn't much space to look anyway, the closet was actually very small. Stiles and him could barely fit in it together, their bodies were pressed close to each other, and there was very little wiggle room.

Stiles tried to ignore how much he liked being this close to Derek, but it was hard. With their chests being pressed this close together he could feel how completely built Derek was, and well, he wasn't exactly complaining. He had no idea what was going wrong with his head, but he definitely liked being this close to Derek.

"Stiles," Derek said and looked down at the human, "What's being pressed against my leg?" he asked, even though he already had a very good idea about what it was. He felt like he should be annoyed but he wasn't.

"Hmmmmmm" Stiles said and looked up at him, "Don't know what you're talking about" he said, deciding to just go with denial. Not wanting to admit that it might, possible be his boner. _Nope definitely not that._

Derek chuckled softly, "Right" he said and nodded slightly before going quiet. He tried to focus his hearing on what the police were doing, but he kept finding himself being distracted by Stiles. The human boy was very distracting and he wasn't sure what he thought about that. He didn't mind being this close to him, even though he usually hated being touched and being close to people. He also, for some reason, didn't care about what was being pressed up against his leg, he actually found that he might actually like it. ' _Okay, there is definitely something wrong with me,'_ he thought to himself before shaking his head slightly.

Stiles let out a choked laugh when he suddenly felt something poking at his leg as well. "Derek," he said and suppressed another laugh. "Got something you want to tell me?" he asked quietly with a smirk.

Derek looked down at him for a moment, confused at first before he realized what he was talking about. He shook his head slightly and was about to say something when he heard the police finally walk into the cabin. He hissed under his breath before tightening his grip on the door knob to the closet, deciding that his plan was just to hold the door shut. Wasn't like a human would be strong enough to get it to budge anyway.

Derek looked over at Stiles, able to see and smell how nervous he was. He could tell that he was scared that they would be caught, even though he probably would mostly get in trouble from his dad. No way would they actually make the Sheriff's son a person of interest in all the murders that have been happening around town, especially Stiles. Might be annoying but he was definitely not a murderer. Well, not on his own, anyway.

Derek searched Stiles' face for a moment, wanting to let him know that they would be fine, that they wouldn't get caught, but he couldn't. If he spoke he'd just give away their position, he could still hear one or two of the police officer's ambling around the cabin. As he looked down at the human their eyes met and he thought maybe Stiles could actually see him as well, even though he knew he probably couldn't. That thought quickly left though as he smelled Stiles' arousal, it was faint but definitely there. He smirked as he suddenly felt like kissing the boy. Barely even thinking about it, he brought his hand up to the boy's cheek and caressed it softly before leaning in and kissing him.

 _*Stiles_

When Stiles felt a hand on his face he freaked for a moment, before he felt Derek's lips press against his. As soon as their lips touched it was like a shock went through his back and it was amazing, he's never had a kiss like that before. He found himself kissing him back eagerly, he brought his hand up to Derek's face and caressed his cheek lightly before running it back and up through his hair. Though after a moment he seemed to realize what he was doing and froze before pulling away. "I can't do this," he muttered and scrambled out of the closet. He jumped back slamming the door back shut when he saw the police.

"Stiles, no!" Derek grumbled when he moved to leave the closet, but he couldn't exactly force him to stay after what just happened.

Stiles chuckled softly, "oh uh… hey," he said awkwardly, "This isn't weird" he said and let out a nervous laugh. "I'm actually out camping with my friend….. and uh his girlfriend" he said lied with a smile. "But uh…. there doing the nasty in the uh… tent so I didn't want to be a weirdo," he said and smiled.

"What were you doing in the closet?" One of the police officers asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Aren't you the Sheriff's son?" the other asked.

"Yes, yes I am" Stiles said and nodded slightly to the one who asked about his father. To the other one he smiled and said, "I was already in the cabin when I heard you guys and I kind of panicked. I mean I wasn't doing anything wrong, but you know how it is" he said. "So I hid in the closet. Then I realized if you guys found me it would look even worse so I decided to come out. Just uh….. didn't expect you to be right there" he said and gave another small laugh.

"And uh what about that" the police officer asked motioning to the bulge in his pants. "Someone else in that closet?" he asked and took a step toward.

Stiles panicked for a moment before shaking his head, and laugh softly, "No uh actually, I was uh… kind of uh….. playing with myself," he said and smiled small, blushing madly. "Another reason why I uh hid in the closet. Didn't get to finish," he said and shrugged slightly.

 _*Derek_

Derek could hear Stiles' heart racing, and it wasn't from all the lying he was doing. It wasn't exactly convincing, but the police must have believed him because they didn't come and open the closet door. They did, however, make him leave the cabin, and he heard them tell him to go back to his camping site and pack up and leave. They would have escorted him but they got a call on their cb radios and had to leave. Once he was sure they were all gone he got out of the closet and ran over to Stiles. "You're a terrible liar" he said with a small laugh.

Stiles glared at him for a moment, "Hey, they believed me, didn't they?" he said and laughed softly, obviously not caring about the comment. "Come on we should get out of this area before they find us again" he said and looked around. "Which way is it back to the camp?" he asked. He was avoiding looking at Derek, because of what happened in the closet, and it was painfully obvious.

Derek frowned slightly but didn't say anything. "This way," he said and started walking in the direction he indicated. As he walked, he thought about what happened in the closet, and he realized it was definitely a mistake and shouldn't happen again, even if it had been the best kiss he'd ever had.


	7. Chapter Seven: Talking

**Chapter Seven**

 **Talking**

 _*Stiles_

Stiles walked back into the camp almost an hour later; he'd followed Derek the entire time, and it had been deafeningly quiet. It was so awkward and tense, and he really had no idea how to make it better. Though for starters, he probably could talk about what happened in the closet, but he didn't know if that would just make it worse or not. He was thinking that it would just make it worse. So he just stayed quiet, and when they made it back to the camp he still didn't say anything. He just walked over to the cooler and made himself a sandwich, because he was starving. Then he sat down by the still burning embers and started eating.

Derek watched Stiles for a moment before just sitting by the fire pit, he saw that it was pretty much out so he moved to restart it.. "So uh….. what's the plan?" he asked kind of awkwardly.

"Same as before I guess," Stiles said after a moment. "If the police find us actually camping it won't be a big deal and well we can lie and say we were just about to pack up," he said and shrugged slightly.

Derek nodded slightly and sat back when he decided the fire was good enough. "What are we going to do about the body they found?" he asked after a few minutes of awkward silence.

Stiles shrugged slightly "I guess we can wait until they all clear out and then go and check it out for ourselves" he said and ate the last little bit of his sandwich. He sighed softly before finally looking at Derek, for the first time since he'd left him in the closet. "Though that might take a while, don't know what'll happen until then," he said with a shrug. He really wasn't liking how tense and awkward things seemed to be, he kind of just wished that they could go back to how it was before, before they even went into that stupid closet.

Derek sighed softly, "Can we talk about it?" he asked, because he couldn't hold in the question any longer. Even as the words left his mouth he regretted them, knowing they would probably just make everything worse.

Stiles let out a slow sigh, "What is there to talk about? You kissed me, it was amazing, I freaked out, and almost got us both caught by the police," he said and looked at Derek again. "There, we talked," he said, he wanted to stand up to leave, but there was really nowhere for him to go, so he stayed where he was.

Derek growled, not appreciating the attitude coming from the human. "I'm sorry that it upset you so much, but all the signs were there. Unless I misread your boner," he snapped.

Stiles sighed softly, "You're right, things have been different between us and I don't know what it is, but it can't be that" he said and let out another sigh. He wasn't really looking for another relationship right now anyway. He broke up with Malia just a few weeks ago and it was still a little sore.

Derek frowned, "And why not?" he asked, again surprised by the words just popping out of his mouth. Since when did he want to date some annoying human….. boy. Since when did he even want to date a boy for that matter. _God, there is definitely something wrong with me._

"Because I'm not gay for one," Stiles snapped.

"Yeah, neither am I," Derek said with a sigh. "But, like you said, the kiss was amazing. I don't know why, but it was."

Stiles sighed softly, knowing that Derek was right, but still didn't know how he felt about this. It was all just too weird, and he had no idea how to get out of it, go around it, or go through it. "Okay, then, because I don't even know how it would work," he said with a nod and actually walked away this time. "Going to bed," he said and kicked his shoes off before climbing into the tent. He laid in the same spot as before and curled up under the covers. He hadn't gotten too much sleep before, so he fell asleep almost immediately.

Derek sighed softly and stayed out tending to the fire. He waited until he heard Stiles' breathing slow and his heart beat mellow, before crawling into the tent as well. He had wanted to wait until the boy was asleep before trying to get some as well. He figured it would be a little less awkward that way. He got under his covers and rolled onto his side, his back facing Stiles, so he wouldn't have the urge to pull him into his arms. It took him a long time to fall asleep, but it happened eventually.

* * *

The next several days were kind of strange, but uneventful, no Ahzi attacks or reappearances from Josie. They were beginning to think she'd finished what she was doing, whatever that was. Things between Derek and Stiles were still tense, the kiss still seared in both their minds, but neither of them were willing to actually go for it again. They talked about it, a lot actually, and they eventually admitted that there was some weird connection between them. They just couldn't get past that last barrier and kiss again just yet. So they decided to just be friends, and not just ignore each other like they kind of did before the whole Ahzi thing happened.

 _*Stiles_

Stiles sighed softly as he started packing up some of their camping stuff, this was going to be their last night there, after all. There was nothing left for them to do out here, especially since Josie and the Ahzi haven't made an appearance in over four days. He was only packing some of it away now because he had nothing else to do and he wanted it all to be ready for tomorrow.

Derek lay in the tent staring up at the top of it, thinking about everything that he and Stiles had talked about over the past five days. He couldn't believe this was all happening, but it was and he felt sad that it didn't seem to actually be going anywhere.

Once Stiles was done packing, he kicked off his shoes and looked in the tent, he stared down at Derek for a moment before carefully crawling over him and laying down next to him. "I'm sorry," he muttered and turned his head to look at the werewolf.

"For what?" Derek asked, a little confused. He turned his head to look at Stiles and smiled small when their eyes met. Stiles had the most beautiful whiskey colored eyes.

"For screwing this up. I think I kind of over reacted," Stiles said with a small laugh and looked up at the top of the tent. "Though, I guess I tend to do that a lot, don't I?" he said.

Derek chuckled softly, "Yeah, I guess you do, but I think it's kind of cute."

"Gee thanks, Derek," Stiles said and shook his head slightly before looking at him again. "But I really am sorry," he said.

Derek nodded slightly, and searched Stiles face for a moment before their eyes met again. He felt the same connection he had in the closet, only this time it was stronger, because he knew Stiles could see him too.

Stiles smiled at Derek as he stared into his eyes, feeling the same connecting Derek did. There really was something going on with them. He just didn't know what ti was or how to describe it.

Derek wanted to lean in and kiss him but they agreed to just be friends and he didn't feel like screwing that all up. So he just smiled again before turning his head away, "It really is fine Stiles, don't worry about it" he said and turned his head to look at him.

Stiles felt a little disappointment when Derek turned his head away from him, but didn't let it show. "Good, I'm glad" he said with a smile. "I'm going to bed now" he said and laughed softly before rolling over to go to sleep.

 _*Derek_

Derek listened at Stiles breathing slow, enjoying the sound of his human falling asleep… _. My human, oh that can't be good_ he thought to himself. He closed his eyes trying to get some sleep as well. He was about to fall asleep when he heard something outside the tent, it sounded like a twig snapping. His eyes snapped open when he heard footsteps walking around the tent. He looked down at the sleeping Stiles for a moment before carefully sitting up. He didn't want him to be awake for this if it was Josie or the Ahzi out there. He'd probably just be in the way and he'd just rather not have him involved in the fighting, for other reasons as well.

Derek quietly unzipped the tent to the door and crawled out. He couldn't see anyone near by so he quickly pulled on his shoes and then turned around to close the tent door. Before he could even touch the zipper though he was thrown across the clearing. His back slammed into a tree and he let out a grunt as his body fell to the ground. He groaned in pain as he pushed himself back onto his feet and faced the werewolf before him. "Josie," he spit out and glared at her.

"Hello again," Josie said with a smile, showing off her sharp canine teeth. She walked closer to him, her face morphing into full werewolf, her eyes turning dark blood red once again. "Miss me?" she asked.

"No, not really," Derek growled and morphed his face into his own werewolf face, his eyes turning bright aqua blue. "Though I am curious where you've been for the past few days," he said and cracked his neck before eyeing her as she moved closer. "Get bored of watching your Ahzi maul people?" he asked. "What's up with the symbol, anyway?" he asked, because he never really got that.

Josie smiled. "So many questions. Didn't know you were the inquisitive type Derek," she said with a small laugh. "Has your little human sex toy been rubbing off on you?" she mocked. "Oh wait, he rejected you didn't he" she said harshly. "What would that make him now, just a toy, or maybe just a thing?"

Derek growled and jumped at her, he slashed his claws through the air, just barely missing her chest.

Josie chuckled softly, obviously loving this. "Temper, temper," she tsked before moving in for the attack. She sliced her claws at him, the sharp tips cutting through the flesh of his right arm.

Derek ignored the pain and moved on her, his arm swung out, his fist meeting her face with a sickening cracking sound. He smiled when he saw her stagger backwards and he didn't stop with the blows, he hit her again, his claws digging into her abdomen this time. He landed blow after blow until she was laying on the ground bloodied and… Laughing? _She's nuts._

Josie laughed as she laid on the ground looking up at Derek, "That all you got, sweetheart?" she asked and jumped back up onto her feet. She staggered slightly, but other than that, she seemed strong and ready to fight.

Derek eyed her for a moment before shaking his head slightly and just getting back into it. His arm shot out and his claws made contact with her gut, cutting through her flesh making her stumbled back again, almost tripping over her feet. _This is almost too easy_. He thought to himself but didn't stop the assault. He again landed blow after blow until she was laying on the ground again, she got in a few of her own but not nearly as many. "You had enough yet?" he growled and knelt down next to her, about ready to rip her throat out and get this all over with once and for all.

Josie smirked up at him, "Have you?" she asked and sat up enough to spit out a mouth full of blood. "Ever hear of a Target Focus, Derek?" she asked, her smile growing. "You were so focused on me, you forgot about poor ol' sleeping Stiles in the tent," she said with a laugh. "But I didn't forget, and neither did my Ahzi," she said and chuckled softly.

Derek felt panic grow in the pit of his stomach as he listened to her speak. _No.. No.. No.. No.._ he repeated over and over again in his head. This couldn't be happening, not now. He ran over to the tent, forgetting about Josie entirely, all he cared about was his Stiles. He ripped back the tent flap and nothing. The tent was empty, other than a few tattered and bloodied blankets. "Oh god, no," he said shaking his head slightly. _This can't be happening._ He thought to himself and turned around to face Josie, but she was gone too. "Damn it," he growled. He focused all his senses, hoping he might be able to pick up Stiles' scent, or maybe hear him… screaming, as much as he would hate that, but there was nothing, absolutely nothing. "Stiles!"


	8. Chapter Eight: Other Plans

**Chapter Eight**

 **Other Plans**

 _*Stiles_

Stiles grunted as he was thrown to the ground. He shakily turned himself over to face his capturer, and saw the Ahzi, and Josie walking up behind it. "Guess this is your other plans coming into play, eh?" he said, trying to hide his fear with sarcasm, it really was his only defense.

Josie smiled and knelt down next to him, "One of them, yes," she said and ran her fingers through his hair. "You're a very handsome boy, I can see why Derek is so infatuated with you." she said with a smile.

Stiles smacked her hand away, not wanting her to touch him, even a little bit. "Thanks," he said and rolled his eyes. "What's your plan then, cause it can't possibly be to bore me to death with your lack of conversational skills," he said.

Josie chuckled and stood up. "Brave one, aren't you?" she said and tilted her head as she studied him. "Guess you're not just the wimpy human I was hearing about," she said and stood up.

Stiles shifted slightly under her assessing eyes, "Thanks," he said sarcastically. "Really glad I meet your approval," he said and rolled his eyes.

Josie chuckled slightly, "You should be," she said and walked over to the Ahzi and stood behind him. "But let's just see how strong you really are," she said and ran her hand over the Ahzi's shoulder with a smirk. "Make sure he'll survive it," she told it before she turned to Stiles. "Make sure you tell Derek to drop it or I'll finish the job myself next time," she said and laughed softly before turning around and walking away.

Stiles cursed under his breath before turning his gaze to the Ahzi. He eyed it for a moment. It just stood there and that almost made it worse. He didn't wait for it to attack him though and he quickly pushed himself onto his feet and ran away. He couldn't hear it, but he felt it following him and it wasn't far behind. "Derek!" he yelled hoping the werewolf would be able to hear him. "Derek!" he yelled again as he forced himself to run faster, he knew it was useless, that he could never outrun the Ahzi, but he had to try.

After what felt like forever he saw the cabin and relief flooded through him, that meant that he wasn't too far from camp. "Derek!" he yelled again, hoping that he could hear him now. He looked around frantically, the Ahzi nowhere in site. He let out a shaky breath and ran over to the cabin and shut the door behind him. He looked around for a moment, hoping to find a weapon, anything he could use against the creature. The best he could find was the leg of a broken of a chair, wasn't great but he'd take it. He picked the leg up and held it up defensively before he looked around the small kitchen area. He saw the closet door and thought a moment before running over and getting inside. He closed the door behind him and tried to calm his breathing as he strained his hearing for any sign that someone or something was in the cabin. His ridiculously weak human earing couldn't pick up anything, not even the tiniest sound over his heavy breathing.

Stiles cursed under his breath and leaned back against the wall, whacking his head lightly. _What am I supposed to do now?_ he asked himself irritably. He let out a slow breath and forced himself to calm down so he could come up with a plan, that was the only way he was going to make it out of this. Before he could even start to think of something though, someone pulled him out of the closet and tossed him across the room.

Stiles hit a wall and fell to the floor, not even sure where he was anymore. He groaned and shook his head slightly, his vision having gone blurry for a moment. "What do you want from me?" he grunted and pushed himself back up onto his feet to look at the Ahzi.

"Message…. send" The Ahzi hissed and ran at him, slamming him into the wall, its claws lightly digging into his skin. "Not death," he said and tightened his grip slightly, blocking the human's airway. "Yet," he hissed before seemingly smiling, his needle like teeth showing macabrely. It studied Stiles for a moment before clutching its fist and hitting Stiles, over and over again. Giving the human the beating of his life, hitting him until he couldn't even hold himself up anymore.

Stiles tried to fight back, but all his attempts were for nought. Soon, he felt his legs give out from under him and he fell to the ground. He groaned in pain as he tried pushing himself back up to his feet, only managing to get to his knees and no farther. He fell forward just his arms holding him up as he started spitting out blood. "Please," he begged, just wanting it to be over.

The Ahzi kicked Stiles sending him flying into the wall and crashing onto the floor. He watched the human slowly move himself so he was lying on his back, struggling for a breath. It crept towards Stiles and stood over him, it looked the human in the eyes for a moment before striking out with its claws and slicing through the flesh of his chest.

Stiles screamed as he felt his chest being ripped open, even if the cuts weren't very deep, it hurt like hell. Both his hands shot to his chest, trying to uselessly stop the bleeding. Though there really was no way for him to do that, he couldn't even cover the entire thing. He barely felt himself being turned over the mind numbing pain in his chest and well everywhere else to distracting for him even to notice until he felt the Ahzi's breath on his neck, the scent of it sickening

"To never forget" the Ahzi hissed in Stiles' ear before digging it's claw deep into the middle of his upper back, right between the shoulder blades. The creature started moving it, cutting a symbol into his back. The same symbol it's carved in everyone else's back.

Stiles screamed as the creature slowly carved the symbol into his back. He wasn't able to move or even squirm, the thing had a tight grip on him and it was unyielding. After far too long, he realized he wasn't screaming anymore and the immense pain dulled to just unbearable. He groaned slightly and he tried to push himself back up onto his feet. He failed several times before he was finally able to get a good enough grip on the wall to pull himself up and hold himself there. He grimaced slightly as he started limping towards the door, the wall the only thing keeping him up at the moment. He felt extremely dizzy, probably from blood loss and being beat around, but he refused to pass out. He had to find Derek, had to.

Stiles made it outside, but not much farther than that. Once out of the door, he fell to his knees and couldn't even force himself to stand back up. He was too tired, too weak, too human to do anything. His vision started blurring, and he knew what was coming. He pushed it off for as long as he could, forcing himself to crawl a few more feet towards the camp before everything went black and he collapsed to the ground.


	9. Chapter Nine: Where is He?

**Chapter Nine**

 **Where is He?**

 _*Derek_

Derek ran through the forest all his senses focused on finding him, and only him. He didn't yell and he didn't even make a single noise as he ran through the trees. He couldn't take the chance of missing something, because he was too busy screaming.

Derek stopped in his tracks when he heard the faint sound of someone calling his name. He held his breath and closed his eyes focusing all his energy on listening to the voice and trying to determine which way to go. He heard it again a moment later and set off running towards it, going as fast as he could. The sound of the voice got louder, and it only pushed him to go faster. "Stiles!" he yelled, but only got his name in response.

Derek came to a clearing and stopped when he saw Josie standing in the middle of it. "Where is he?" he growled and looked around hoping to see Stiles on the ground somewhere.

"Who?" Josie asked a bit mockingly.

"You know who!" Derek shouted and took an angry step towards her. "I heard him. Where is he?!"

"Okay come on now Derek. Your temper won't get you anywhere," Josie said and looked at him disappointedly. "Let's have a calm discussion about this, shall we?" she said.

Derek growled and ran at her grabbing her throat, his claws lightly digging into her flesh. "Where is he?" he growled in her face.

Josie shoved Derek off of her, "I wouldn't do that if I were you," she said and felt her throat as the scratch marks healed. "Any mark you put on me my Ahzi will put a matching one on your boy toy." She smirked and chuckled softly. "And don't worry he's still alive…. for now," she said.

"What do you mean for now?" Derek growled, and had to keep himself from hurting her again.

"Weeeellllll he's unconscious and possibly bleeding out," Josie said. "Doesn't matter, I promise you'll get to him in time. Just have one message for you….. You know, in case Stiles doesn't relay the message; or, you know, he forgets." She said and chuckled softly.

Derek bit his cheek to keep from growling again, and to keep himself from ripping her head off. "What is it?" he asked, trying to remain calm, though it was pretty much impossible.

Josie smiled brightly, as if she was about to give the best possible news, though that smile quickly dissolved into a dark grin. "Stay out of my business, or next time he won't just be unconscious" she said and looked Derek in the eyes. "I will kill him Derek, I'll make you watch and then I will kill you," she said. Of course she didn't really think Derek cared too much about the human, just enough to be willing to stop interfering.

Derek knew Stiles wouldn't like that, and to be honest neither did he but he nodded anyway. "Yeah okay, whatever" he said.

Josie sighed softly, but took it anyway, "He's at the cabin," she said and smiled before taking off running in the opposite direction.

 _The cabin?_ Derek thought momentarily confused before it quickly popped into his head. "Of course" he said and shook his head slightly at how stupid he was for not remembering right away. He took off running as fast as he could towards the cabin, hoping to god he was going the right way, he's only ever been there the one time.

Derek skid to a stop when he came to the cabin and saw Stiles lying on the ground, not moving. He cursed under his breath and ran over to him, "Stiles!" he said, a bit of panic laced into his voice as he knelt down next to the human. He gently turned the boy over and examined the slash marks on his chest, "Fuck," he hissed before focusing his hearing, praying to god that he'd hear a heartbeat. He let out a sigh of relief when he finally heard the faint sound of the human's heart. Then he carefully picked him up and ran through the trees, trying not to jostle Stiles at all as he did so.

Derek quickly made it back to the jeep and carefully set Stiles in the front seat, since the damned thing didn't have a proper back one. "Stay with me, Stiles," he said and caressed the human's cheek softly before grabbing the keys out of his pocket and closing the door. He hurried around to the driver's side and quickly climbed in and started the engine.

Derek sped all the way to the Beacon Hills hospital, not really caring about traffic laws at the moment. Even with the speeding it took almost five minutes to get there, which pissed Derek off royally. He pulled to a stop in front of the hospital, practically driving through the doors. As soon as the car came to a stop he jumped out and ran over to the passenger's side. He carefully pulled Stiles out, not wanting to hurt him anymore then he already was. He hurried through the doors of the hospital, kicking it open with his foot "Someone! Please help me!" he yelled as he hurried over to the counter. "Please help!" he yelled and thankfully some nurses ran over and took Stiles off his hands. They carried him away on a gurney, yelling out codes and directions that he really didn't understand.

Once Stiles was out of sight, Derek ran into the bathroom to wash his hands, the smell of Stiles' blood still infuriating him. He frantically scraped the blood off his hands and arms, wishing he had a change of shirt, since that was covered in blood as well. Once he was done he hurried back out into the waiting room and paced as he waited for news.

"Where is my son? What happened?" Sheriff Stilinski demanded at the front desk.

"I'm sorry Mr. Stilinski, but we don't have any information yet. Please have a seat in the waiting room. The doctor will be out soon to talk to you" the nurse said kindly.

Sheriff Stilinski grumbled under his breath before stepping away from the counter and going to the waiting room. "Derek" he asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "Did you have something to do with my son?"


	10. Chapter Ten: Road to Recovery

**Chapter Ten**

 **Road to Recovery**

 _*Derek_

Derek shook his head slightly, "What? No of course not," he said and looked at the sheriff for a moment. "But I think we both know that the thing killing these people isn't human," he said, sighing softly. "He came to me for help and things didn't go well."

Sheriff Stillinski glared at Derek for a moment before letting his gaze soften. "Right," he said and walked over to one of the chairs and sat down with an exhausted huff. He ran his hands through his hair. "Could have just told him to stay out of it," he said.

"Yeah, cause that would have worked," Derek said sarcastically and sat down next to him. "He would have gone after it by himself if I did that." he shook his head slightly. He turned his head and looked over at Mr. Stilinski "He's not going to be involved anymore though. I promise," he said.

Stilinski nodded slightly, knowing that Derek was right. His son would have just went out on his own if Derek turned him away. He wasn't really sure which one would have been a better option though. He looked at Derek when he said his son wouldn't be involved anymore, "Good, I hope you can keep that promise," he said and leaned back in the seat, looking very exhausted.

Derek watched the Sheriff for a moment before turning away with a sigh. He stared at the floor not sure what to say to that. "I will," he said before standing up and walking out of the waiting room. He went outside, needing some fresh air, heneeded to clear his mind. He walked through the parking lot over to the Jeep, because he didn't know where else to go. The nurse asked him to move it when he got out of the bathroom, so that's what he did. He leaned against the driver's side door and looked down at the keys in his hands. He frowned as he noticed they had blood all over them as well, he grumbled under his breath before shoving them into his pockets and walking away from the Jeep. He couldn't stand being near the thing, the stench of Stiles' blood just rolled off of it.

Derek walked around aimlessly before heading back to the waiting room. He walked into the hospital and saw the Sheriff talking to a doctor. He immediately focused his hearing to listen in on what they were saying.

"Don't worry, Mr. Stilinski your son's going to be just fine. He has a minor concussion, some bruised ribs, along with some other bruising and a few lacerations," the doctor said before going a bit more into detail about what was happening. "We stitched him up, and gave him some morphine to dull the pain. He's asleep now, but you can go in and see him."

Sheriff Stilinski nodded slightly, "Thank you, doctor," he said and shook the man's hand before hurrying down the hallway to his son's room.

Derek heard him walked over to the bed and sit down, before he unfocused his hearing. He let out a sigh of relief, a weight seemingly lifted off his shoulders when he heard that Stiles was going to be okay. He slowly walked back over to the waiting room and sat down, didn't really know what he was still doing here, but he couldn't get himself to leave, so he just stayed. Though he really didn't have to since Stiles was probably being released tomorrow anyway.

After a long while of just sitting there, Derek stood up and walked back to Stiles' room. He looked in at the two of them, "Uh…. how's he doing?" he asked the Sheriff.

The Sheriff jumped slightly at the sound of the sudden voice, he looked up to see Derek standing in the doorway. He looked at him for a moment, "You're still here," he said, a little more than surprised by that fact. He didn't take Derek for the caring type.

Derek smiled small and nodded, "Yeah, uh… just thought I'd see how he was doing before I left," he said and walked into the room a little and looked down at Stiles for a moment before peeling his eyes away and looking at the Sheriff again. He could barely stand to look at him, when he looked like that, so bruised and broken.

Stilinski nodded slightly, understanding that, a little. "He's doing good," he said with a smile. "Doctor said he'd be fine and that I could take him home tomorrow," he said, looking a lot better than he had in the waiting room, still exhausted but a lot better.

Derek smiled, "Thats good." he said and nodded slightly before looking at Stiles again. He stared down at him for a while before forcing himself to look away again. "I'll uh... see you around," he said and looked at the Sheriff for a moment before nodding a bit and walking out of the room and down the hallway.

* * *

 _*Stiles_

Stiles groaned softly as he shifted on the bed… _Wait this isn't my bed…_ He thought to himself as he slowly came to. As he slowly woke up everything came back to him and he groaned again. He opened his eyes to see his dad standing over him, _Oh great_ He thought, because there was no way he wasn't going to get in trouble for this. "Hey dad," he mumbled.

The Sheriff chuckled softly. "Hey Son," he said and shook his head a bit, just glad that his kid was okay and awake. "How you feeling?" he asked.

Stiles smiled small. "Okay, I guess," he said and groaned softly as he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. "Everything hurts, but I'm okay," he said with a small laugh, but stopped because it kind of hurt his chest. "Where am I?" he asked, though the second the question left his mouth the answer came to him. He was at the hospital, Derek found him and took him to the hospital. He was about to ask about Derek, but stopped himself, his dad probably didn't know anything. "So uh…. when am I allowed to go home?" he asked after a few moments.

"The doctor said he wants you to stay overnight," he said with a smile and sat down on the edge of his chair and looked over his son, he hated seeing him in pain like this.

"It's okay dad, doesn't hurt that bad" Stiles said and smiled small and slowly moved himself so that he was more comfortable and looked at his dad. He hated hospitals, nothing good as ever come from him stepping inside a hospital, seriously nothing. He didn't say anything about it though and just smiled, because he didn't want his dad to feel worse than he already was. "You know where my clothes are?" he asked since he was currently wearing a nightgown and well he'd rather be wearing his own clothes.

The Sheriff chuckled softly, "Your shirt was pretty much garbage and your pants are covered in blood. I haven't had a chance to go home and grab you anything yet. Didn't even really think about it actually."

Stiles sighed softly, "Ummmm I might have something in the jeep." he said, not sure if he actually did or not. "But it's okay dad, I don't need anything until tomorrow, right?" he asked with a smile.

The Sheriff nodded slightly "No, it's okay, I think Derek moved it to the parking lot or something. I'll go check. If not, I'll just run to the house, shouldn't take long," he said and looked over his son for moment before standing up and walking out of the room.

Stiles watch his dad leave and sighed softly. "Great," he mumbled and moved so he was lying down again. He sighed softly and closed his eyes as he tried to relax, but he doubted that was possible. Everything hurt and he just couldn't get comfortable.

"How you feeling?" asked someone from the doorway.

Stiles jumped slightly at the sudden voice, but smiled because he immediately knew who it was. "I feel okay," he said and opened his eyes to look over at Derek.

Derek smiled and walked into the room and over to the bed. "Good," he said and sat down in the chair next to it.

Stiles watched him for a moment before smiling small, "You know this wasn't your fault, right?" he said and eyed Derek, trying to make sure he didn't feel guilty about this. "Which brings me to my next point, which is…... thank you for finding me" he said.

Derek smiled and nodded slightly, "You're welcome, and I don't blame myself, I blame Josie."

"Good," Stiles said and slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, it hurt like hell but he managed.

"How much does it hurt?" Derek asked, because he could clearly see how much pain the human was in.

Stiles shrugged slightly, "A lot, but it's manageable," he said and smiled. "And hey, I'm sure once I get out of here, I'm gonna get some of the good stuff," he said and winked, before laughing softly.

"Great, you on drugs, that will be fun," Derek said with a small laugh.

"Yeah, it most definitely will be, Derek," Stiles said with a smile and a small laugh. "You think I'm funny now? Oh you just wait, buddy."

"Except that I don't find you funny so much as just annoying," Derek said jokingly with a smile.

"Well then, I'll be just that much more annoying then" Stiles said and shook his head slightly.

"See? That's what I was thinking," Derek said with a smile. He sighed softly, sobering up a bit. "Though seriously, Stiles, how are you feeling?" he asked, still a little worried about the human.

Stiles smiled small, "I'm fine Derek," he said, and meant it. Other than the pain he was good. "I'm sore all over the place, and my chest and back hurt, but yeah I'm fine," he said with a small nod, wanting Derek to know that he meant it.

Derek nodded slightly, "Okay, that's good," he said and sighed softly. He looked over Stiles for a moment, making sure the human was actually okay. Once he decided that he was, he smiled and nodded again. "I should probably get going," he said and stood up. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said and walked out of the room and down the hallway. He would have stayed longer but he heard the sheriff coming back.

Stiles watched Derek leave and sighed softly trying to make himself comfortable, but it just didn't seem possible at the moment.

Sheriff Stilinski walked into the room a few minutes later and went over to the bed. "Sorry this is all I could find," he said and handed the clothes to Stiles. "I didn't have the keys, but Derek left the doors unlocked. I had to dig through the mess in the back to find them," he said.

Stiles smiled and took the clothes from him. "Thanks dad," he said and slowly moved and climbed out of bed. He slowly pushed himself onto his feet, standing hurt more than he thought it would. He had to ignore the pain as he slowly pulled on the sweat pants his dad pulled out of his jeep. There was no telling how dirty they were but he really didn't care about that. Once he finally had the pants on, he carefully pulled gown off and tossed it over to a nearby chair. He paused slightly as he looked down at the bandage on his chest, the memory of how he got it flashing across his mind. He flinched slightly as he felt the things claws slice through him again. He shook his head slightly, forcing the memory away, before he pulled the shirt on over his head, took a little longer than it usually would, but he was okay with that. Once he was dressed he laid back on the bed with a sigh.

"You okay Stiles?" Sheriff Stilinski asked, he could see something was wrong, might not be close with his son, but he knew that much.

Stiles looked up at his dad and nodded slightly "Yeah, I'm okay Dad. Don't worry so much," he said jokingly with a smile.

Stilinski nodded slightly and sat down next to the bed leaning back into it with a sigh. "I'll try," he said, though he wasn't sure he'd ever stop worrying about his son. Especially now, with everything that he seems to get himself into.

Stiles smiled and nodded slightly before laying down a bit farther onto the bed, again trying to make himself more comfortable.

* * *

Later that night Stiles was laying in bed, doped up on some pain meds trying to go to sleep. His dad had wanted to stay but he convinced him to go home, because there wasn't anything for him to do here. It was a long argument, but Stiles eventually won, and now he was alone in his room and very bored. There was nothing to do and he couldn't fall asleep,which he's been trying to do for the last hour.

After a while, he just couldn't take it anymore. He slowly pushed himself out of bed and walked around his room a bit. His legs were sore, but not broken, so he managed to walk just fine. He got bored of that really quickly as well, and his mind started to wander. Before he knew it, he was thinking about last night and the attack. His hand slowly raised and felt his chest making the bandage under his shirt crinkle. He just looked down at his chest for a long while before ambling over to the bathroom and turning the light on. He quickly shut and locked the door behind him before standing in front of the mirror. ' _I look fucking terrible'_ he thought to himself as he studied his bruised reflection. He looked down at his chest again before slowly removing the shirt and setting it down on the counter. He flinched slightly when he saw even more bruising, he was practically just a big walking, talking bruise. He fingered the edge of the bandage slightly, itching to see what it looked like, even if he knew he wasn't supposed to be removing the bandages, he couldn't see the one he really wanted to see anyway, and that was the one on his back. He didn't care about that though, so he slowly, and painfully peeled the bandage back. ' _Oh well, there goes the little bit of chest hair I had'_ he thought to himself sarcastically.

Stiles let the bandage hang loosely off his chest as he stared at the slash marks on his chest. The marks weren't deep but they sure were long and nasty looking, and the stitches just made them look even more gnarly. He flinched as everything from last night came flooding into his mind. It was like a dam broke, everything came back at once and he felt the pain all over again, like he was living through it all over again.

Stiles forced himself to look away from the marks on his chest and quickly covered them back up with the bandage. The memories were on replay in his mind and as much as he tried, he couldn't get it to stop. He stumbled back away from the mirror and into the wall behind him, he slowly slid down onto the floor as his breathing became labored. He could feel his heart pounding a million miles a minute in his chest, but even still all his mind was focused on was the replaying of last night's event.

 _Running as fast as possible, as fast as I could but it wasn't enough, could never be enough. I'm just a human, just a human, what can a human possibly do against the supernatural world? I'm not a hunter I'm just Stiles, just Stiles, and I'm running, running for my life._

 _Made it to a building but I know it won't matter, I'm in a closet, the same one that Derek kissed me in. Such a good kiss, but now I'm going to die, and Derek's no where. Where is Derek? Why isn't he here?_

 _I didn't even hear it or see it, I was just suddenly flying into a wall and then I was on the floor, being beaten. Each punch was more painful than the last. I can hear myself scream, screaming for him, but he doesn't come, why isn't he coming? I need him!_

 _The punches were bad but it's claws slicing through my chest was worse. Oh god the pain, barely even noticed that my vision became spotty, the pain oh god the pain. My hands are on my chest, when did they get there, there's so much blood, just so much blood. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die._

 _Not again, "no please stop" I heard myself yell but there was no reply. I could hear myself screaming again it was his name, but he was still nowhere to be seen. Why isn't he here? Where is Derek? God the pain, nothing but pain. I can feel myself blacking out and I welcome it. I welcome the peace of the darkness._

" _Stiles!" a voice yelled from the distance. I could barely hear it, it was so faint. "Snap out of it, Stiles!" it yelled, louder this time. I was being shaken, why am I being shaken? The pain is gone, why is the pain gone? "Stiles, please. You're at the hospital. Your safe." Safe? What do you mean safe? I'm dying, and I'm alone. Suddenly I felt something on my lips? What is that?" I opened my eyes and it's Derek. He's kissing me._

Stiles opened his eyes and looked at Derek as the werewolf pulled away, "Sorry,you weren't uh…. listening and I didn't know what else to do," he said and looked over the human as if he was about to break. He had no idea what had just happened, and it was kind of freaking him out.

Stiles smiled small. "It's fine," he said and let out a soft sigh before looking around his fingers lightly feeling his lips as he did. "It was uh…. uh… panic attack," he said. "I used to get them after my mom died," he said and frowned slightly. "Though they were never quite like this." he chuckled softly, before he slowly pushed himself up onto his feet and looked around again. "What are you doing here?" He asked, kind of confused to why the werewolf was even here. He thought he left a long time ago.

Derek smiled small. "I was uh making sure nothing happened?" he said a bit awkwardly. "I mean, Josie and the Ahzi are still out there, just wanted to make sure you were safe," he said with a smile, though still a bit awkward. "Oh and I forgot to give you these," he said and held out the keys to the jeep. He looked over the human, not sure if he should be standing up already. "You okay?" he asked, worried about the fragile human.

Stiles chuckled softly and pulled his shirt back on before taking the keys. "Thanks, and yeah I think I'm okay" he said and sighed softly. "Not really sure I guess. Never really been this bad before" he said and frowned when he looked at the bathroom door. "Did you really break the lock? Who's going to pay for that Derek?" he asked and stared pointedly at the werewolf. "My dad sure as hell won't be able to afford it," he said with a sigh before laughing softly and pushing the door open the rest of the way and walking into the bedroom. He looked around and saw it was exactly the same as he left it, and he kind of wondered where the nurses were, how had they not heard any of that. "How did you know?" he asked suddenly.

Derek left the light on in the bathroom as he walked out and over to Stiles. "I heard your heartbeat and it sounded like you were in trouble so I came," he said with a small smile and looked around the room, he was also kind of wondering how the nurses hadn't heard anything. Wasn't like this whole thing had been quiet. "Has Melissa been to see you?" he asked, remembering that Scott's mom was a nurse at this hospital.

"Yeah, she came to see me a little while after you left. We visited for a while before she had to get back to work," Stiles said with a small smile. He walked over to the bed and sat down, because he was too exhausted to continue standing at the moment. He looked over at Derek, barely able to see him, even with the glow of the light from the bathroom. "Thanks for looking after me Derek. It means a lot," he said.

Derek chuckled softly and nodded slightly, "That's what friends are for, right?" he said with a smile. "I should probably be letting you get some sleep though. You look terrible," he said.

"Oh wow, gee thanks Derek." Stiles said sarcastically. "You know a good friend would lie and say I look good."

Derek laughed softly. "Yeah, whatever," he said and smiled before saying one last goodbye and walked out of the room. Then he slowly made his way back up to his spot on the roof, because there was no way he was going to leave now. Not after that, he didn't even feel comfortable leaving Stiles alone in the room.

Stiles watched him go before settling into the bed. He snuggled up under the covers and made himself as comfortable as he could before he closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep. This time his mind was full of thoughts of Derek, and he fell asleep almost instantly.


	11. Chapter Eleven: Two Weeks Later

**Chapter Eleven**

 **Two Weeks Later**

 _*Stiles_

Stiles let out a huff as he yet again had to go over what happened in the woods with his father. It's been two weeks since it's happened and he's had to go over the story thousands of times, which he understood. He was the only living victim, but it wasn't like he could tell the truth. So every time he told it he had to be sure that it was always the same story, and the details were always the same, it was all very nerve racking. His nerves were severely racked.

Stiles finally finished going over the lie of what had happened for the last time with a police officer, and he was glad it was finally done. Well at least he hoped it was done, he made his father promise that there wouldn't be anymore questioning after this, because he just couldn't take it anymore. He hated going over that night over and over again, it haunted his dreams enough he didn't want to have to talk about it everyday too. It didn't help that he's had two more panic attacks since the one in the hospital. Both times Derek would suddenly appear and pull him out of it, which was kind of relieving, knowing that a badass werewolf always had his back.

Stiles walked out of the police station and sure enough there the badass werewolf was, leaning against his jeep. He couldn't keep the smiled off his face as he walked over to him. "What are you doing here, Derek?" he asked.

"Just checking up on a friend" Derek said, "Kind of scrawny and a little awkward. He's giving the police a statement right now. Should be out soon," he said with a smirk.

"Oh really?" Stiles said and gave a small laugh, "Give me a little more detail maybe I saw him," he said, deciding to play along with Derek's joke.

"Oh, he's pretty hard to miss," Derek said with a smile. "He's loud, and very sarcastic," he said and paused as if he was thinking about other characteristics. "Kind of lanky, yay high," he said and held his hand up to about where Stiles' height would probably be. "Dark brown hair….." he said trailing off like he didn't have anything else to say, though about a thousand other descriptions popped into his head, just none of them were very appropriate for a friendship.

Stiles made a face ' _Lanky…. really'_ he mouthed and shook his head slightly, "Nope haven't seen him. Must have missed him," he said and shrugged slightly. "Sucks for you dude, sounds like an awesome guy."

Derek laughed softly "Eh, he's okay. Kind of annoying honestly," he said with a smile.

Stiles gaped, "You think he's… annoyi…. Oh dude that's just not cool," he said and shook his head slightly before getting into the jeep.

Derek laughed out loud, "Hey I said kind of, didn't I?" he said with a smile before getting into the passenger side of the car.

"Still unacceptable," Stiles said jokingly with a smile before starting the engine and pulling out of the parking lot. "You're a horrible friend, by the way," he said jokingly.

Derek laughed. "Now that's just rude," he said and shook his head.

Stiles laughed softly and looked over at Derek, "Okay, now seriously, what's up Derek?" he asked. He knew the werewolf was prone to just randomly showing up, but it still was strange to him.

Derek shrugged, "Just wanted to check up on you," he said honestly and turned his head to look at Stiles. "It's been a few days. Wanted to see how you were doing," he said. He's been busy the last three days, so he hasn't really been around Stiles, not even watching over him like he'd been doing over the past few nights.

"I've noticed," Stiles said and looked over at Derek, "What have you been up to?" he asked. "Looking for that Bitch, Josie, I hope?" he said, not only because of what she did to him but because there has been two more murders since that night. "I might have found a connection by the way," he said with a proud smile.

"Stiles, don't worry about Josie. I have it handled. You just rest," Derek said.

Stiles sighed, "I've been resting for the past two weeks Derek, I'm sick and tired of resting. I want to get back into things!" he said.

Derek sighed softly, "Stiles, it's too dangerous, and you're not completely healed yet" he said. He suddenly jolted forward, barely having enough time to catch himself on the dashboard. "What the hell Stiles?" he said and looked over to see the human glaring at him.

Stiles gaped at what Derek said before realizing what he was doing, he was trying to sideline him. He slammed on the brakes, luckily there were no other cars on the road so he didn't cause a crash. "Seriously Derek, you have to ask," he snapped and pursed his lips as he tried getting a grip on the anger that had started to boil in his gut. "What are you trying to do, Derek, sideline me, get me out of the way so you can just do it yourself? Think I can't handle it? Huh!?" he asked.

Derek sighed softly, "Can we do this somewhere else?" he asked. "Preferably not in the middle of the road."

Stiles glared at him a moment before huffing and lifting his foot off the brake. He drove to Derek's place, not exactly going the speed limit as he did so. He parked in the usual spot before getting out of the car, slamming the door shut before walking up to Derek's loft. His anger dissipated a bit, but he was still angry that Derek was trying to take him out of the fight. Like he just saw him as some weak human or something. Sure he was a human but that didn't mean he was weak, or couldn't handle this, he was fine.

Derek walked into his apartment and shut the door behind Stiles, "I wasn't trying to insult you or anything Stiles. I'm just trying to look after you" he said and looked over at Stiles with a sigh.

"Yeah I'm sure that's all it is" Stiles said sarcastically. "Just admit it Derek, you always saw me as the annoying human who got in the way." he said.

Derek sighed, "Okay fine, yeah maybe at first that is how I saw you. I thought Scott was an idiot for letting you get involved, but you were always the one to figure things out. You've always got a plan, good or bad" he said. "You helped several times, so no, I don't see you as just the annoying human anymore. I do, however, see you as a friend who's gotten hurt," he said. "One I'd rather not see get hurt again."

"So what? I'm just supposed to sit back and let you take this all on by yourself? Not happening," Stiles said and shook his head slightly.

"Would you look at yourself Stiles? You may not like it, but you are human," Derek said. "You can't just heal…. you could die, Stiles," he said and let out a heavy sigh. "You have people who care about you Stiles, what would your dad do? What would I… If you died, I'd… I'd be devastated," he said and shook his head slightly.

"Okay, not that's not fair. Using my own argument against me" Stiles said and pointed at

Derek as he remembered almost the exact same conversation he had with Lydia. He'd gotten his ass kicked that time too. Maybe that was all he was good for.

"What?" Derek asked, extremely confused.

"Nothing, just something I said to…. doesn't matter," Stiles said and shook his head slightly. "But this is different," he said and was about to say something when he changed his mind. "No, actually, it isn't" he said and walked closer to Derek, "I was wrong then, and you're wrong now Derek," he said and poked the man's chest, ignoring the small glare that, that earned him. "People are dying Derek and we can do something about it, I might not be able to help like you can, but I am still usefull!" and poked the man again.

"Poke me again and you'll lose the finger" Derek threatened and let out a small sigh as he tried finding a convincing argument. "If I say no, you're still going to get involved, aren't you?" he said.

Stiles nodded slightly "Correct," he said with a smile. "I'm not going to back down just because I got hurt, or that I'm scared Derek. That's not who I am."

Derek sighed softly with defeat, he might not know the human well but he knew he'd just end up getting himself in trouble. "She said she'd kill you," he said and stared at Stiles for a moment. "You forgot to mention that."

Stiles gaped at him for a moment, not knowing how he knew that, but then it hit him, she told him herself. "Yeah she said that, what's your point?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"That someone literally put a hit out on your life if we continue with this whole thing," Derek said and crossed his arms. "I'm not okay with that risk,"

"Well I am, that's why I didn't tell you about it, Derek," Stiles said and stared at him for a moment. "I didn't want it to be a problem."

"Well it is" Derek said.

Stiles shook his head slightly, "Oh my god Derek, you can't be serious" he said in surprise. "I'm just one person, she's killed dozens, and will probably kill dozens more," he said. "She needs to be stopped, and the police won't be able to do it. Come on Derek, we need to do this."

Derek sighed with defeat, there was no way he was going to win this argument. "What was your lead" he asked, because there was no way he was going to outright admit defeat.

Stiles smiled victoriously, "It's not exactly a lead because it's not all the victims, but most of them are sixteen to eighteen, dark hair, green eyes, about 5' 10." he said and shrugged slightly. "Sound familiar?" he asked, talking about when Derek was that age. "I noticed when I was looking over the pictures that some of them kind of looked like you, not creepily but you know same general appearance for most part" he said. "So I looked through some old yearbooks and pulled up a picture of you, to make sure I wasn't just nuts and I compared them. I was right." he said with a small smile. "She definitely has it out for you. Don't know why but she does" he said.

Derek couldn't help but smile as well, though as the human spoke his slowly faded. "Really?" he asked, not getting why she would be after him. He didn't even know who she was.

"Yeah, I mean it's not very noticeable, but it's there. I stared at the pictures for hours before I even noticed it" Stiles said with a shrug. "Know why she might want to target you? Or why she would kill so many people just to get to you?" he asked.

Derek shrugged, "I don't know, never met her before" he said and sighed softly. "She's nuts though, so that's probably why she's killing a bunch of random people"

Stiles nodded slightly before walking around Derek and sitting down on the couch with a sigh. He was still a little sore, but al his bruises were mostly healed, it was just the claw marks that hurt. "Well whatever, guess the reason doesn't really matter. Just have to stop her" he said with a small nod before looking over at Derek.

Derek nodded slightly, "Yeah I guess you're right" he said with a small sigh before going to sit next to Stiles, their shoulders brushing together lightly. He turned his head and looked at Stiles for a moment, "Don't freak out, but I would feel better about it if we at least awaited a few more days before getting back into this" he said. "Make sure you're at your full strength" he said.

Stiles sigh with frustration but nodded anyway, deciding not to argue this time. "Fine" he said a bit exaggeratedly. "I suppose we could wait a few more days" he said and looked at Derek. "But not long, I don't want anyone else getting hurt" he said, and meant it.

Derek nodded slightly, glad he at least got him to wait a few more days before jumping back into this. "Good" he said with a smile. "What would you like to do until then?" he asked.

Stiles shrugged "I don't know, watch a movie" he said and looked around a bit, "You don't have a t.v. so uh…. maybe uh….. I don't know" he said and shrugged again. "I guess we could go back to my place" he said and looked at Derek.

Derek really wasn't the movie watching type, but he really didn't know what else they would be able to do. He wasn't used to having friends so he had no idea how to do this. "Yeah okay" he said.

* * *

The next three days were quiet, and actually kind of fun. Stiles and Derek hung out most of the time, doing random things, watching a lot of movies and even just going on walks and talking. They did a lot of talking, Stiles never thought of Derek as a good conversationalist, but these last three days definitely changed his mind on that.

Though Stiles was glad when it was finally time to start working on the case again, he liked it when he had a set task to do. Especially something as interesting as the supernatural and cases in general. They were back at Derek's place, because he was finally able to convince the werewolf to let him put the evidence wall there.

Stiles finished taping everything up and connecting everything he was able to connect, which wasn't much, on a empty wall at Derek's. Then he stepped back a little bit and just stared at it for a moment.

"I can't believe I let you convince me to allow you to do this" Derek said and shook his head slightly.

Stiles scoffed, "Had to be done" he said and looked over at Derek. "It's my process, deal with it" he said and stared at the board.

Derek chuckled softly before sitting down on the couch, "So what exactly is all this crap supposed to tell us anyway. Don't we already all we need to know. Which is who she is, and who she's after. The rest just doesn't matter" he said.

Stiles scoffed, "Says you" he said and studied the wall for a moment longer before turning around and going over to the couch to sit down next to Derek. "Every little bit of information is useful Derek, it will help us know what we're up against" he said.

"Right?" Derek said with a small nod before leaning over and flipping open the pizza box.

While Stiles put up his ridiculous evidence wall, Derek went out and got a pizza for them. "hope sausage is alright" he said and looked at the human. "I asked what you wanted, but you kind of just ignored me"

Stiles laughed softly, "Yeah uh….. sorry about that" he said and picked up a slice of pizza. "I prefer pepperoni but sausage is good too" he said with a smile before taking a big bite.


	12. Chapter Twelve: Back to It

**Chapter Twelve**

 **Back to It**

 _*Derek_

Derek sighed softly as Stiles yet again started thinking out loud, which the human had a bad habit of doing. The mumblings never really made any sense to Derek, they were kind of all over the place. "Stiles what are you talking about?" he asked and looked over at the human, who wasn't even listening to him. He sighed again before nudging him lightly, "Stiles" he repeated.

Stiles shook his head slightly "Uh….. what?" he asked and looked over at Derek a bit startled and confused having been deep in thought. "Oh…. right…. I was doing it again wasn't I," he said with a small chuckle as the real world came back to him.

Derek smiled and nodded slightly "Yeah" he said and chuckled softly before looking at the human again. "What do you got?" he asked

Stiles smiled, "Okay, so you remember when Peter had this big fit about Talia, your mom, taking one of his memories away, of his daughter Malia" he said and sighed softly. "Anyway I was thinking that maybe she did something similiar to you with this Josie chick" he said and shrugged slightly. "I mean something pretty terrible had to have happened to make her this bat shit crazy, and want to murder a bunch of people just to get to you right" he said and paused a moment as he straightened his thoughts out in his head for a moment. "That being said, maybe it was bad enough for her to want to take the memory from you" he said. "I mean didn't she take away the location of the nemeton" he said, a bit tentatively, considering what happened at there.

Derek nodded slightly, "Uh… yeah she did" he said and furrowed his brow as he thought about it. "Yeah I…. uh guess that is possible" he said and sighed softly as he tried to wrap his mind around this. "Must have been around sixteen around the time it happened" he said. "Before the fire obviously" he said and paused as he tried to think of something that could have been so bad she would take the memory from him. Was it something he did?

Stiles frowned as he watch Derek process this, kind of wishing he'd just kept his mouth shut. "Doesn't really matter what happened to maker her do this Derek. Nothing you could ever do would warrant this behavior. Besides it could have just been something you witnessed right?" he asked. "Something that could have scared you or something?" he asked.

"Yeah I guess" Derek mumbled, not really believing it. He just couldn't shake the feeling that it all had something to do with him, that this was all his fault. He didn't want to burden Stiles with that though so he just pushed the feelings down for the moment and forced a smile. "You're right Stiles, doesn't matter" he said and sighed softly. "Just got to stop Josie and move on" he said.

Stiles could tell there was still something wrong, but he knew Derek well enough to know he wouldn't talk about it, so he just moved on. "Right" he said with a nod before standing and walking over to the evidence wall, that he put up two days ago. They really hadn't made much progress, but luckily no one else has died either so that was good. He put up a small note about Derek's memory possibly being erased before going to sit back down next to Derek, probably closer the he needed too. "Okay, I think we should start patrolling the woods again" he said and turned to look at Derek. "The police kind of gave up on that part. Plus the case has kind of been taken over by the FBI or something" he said and shrugged slightly. "Anyway, what I mean is if we're going to stop her we kind of have to find her" he said.

Derek nodded "You sure you're ready for that?" he asked worriedly, kind of scared to actually really get into this. What they've been doing for the past two days was not really anything, but as soon as they start looking then Josie's threat became real. He wasn't exactly ready for that.

Stiles sighed, "Please Derek don't start that again" he said and looked over at him. "I mean come on I already won that argument." he said jokingly with a smirk.

"Oh really, maybe that's just what I wanted you to think" he said.

Stiles chuckled, "Okay, come on Derek I'm fine. Getting my stitches removed tomorrow and everything." he said with a smile and nudged the werewolf. "Come on Sourwolf" he said jokingly.

Derek sighed and shook his head slightly, again just giving up on trying to fight him on this. He knew there was no way he was going to win, unless he forcefully stopped Stiles and he really didn't want to do that. So instead he'd just have to protect him, he could do that. They pretty much spend all their time together anyway, hell Stiles as fallen asleep on his couch several times already. "You got an actual plan or are we just going out to walk around aimlessly all night?" he asked.

Stiles smiled brightly, because he knew that once again he won the argument, if you could even call that an argument.. "Of course I've got a plan…. Who do you think you're talking to" he said with a small laugh before rearranging some papers on the coffee table and pulling out a map. "Okay, so this is where all the bodies were found. A lot of them are repeats, which is why there's so few spots" he said and smiled as he started connecting the dots on the map. "It's really messy, but it's pretty much a pentagram" he said and smiled small as he picked up the book about the Ahzi. "And in here it says the Ahzi, just naturally does that, doesn't really say why though. It does say that it kills them and then brings them back to the forest, placing them at these general points…. And you know what else it says? That it usually stays or lives in the center" he said and laughed softly. "And you'll never guess what's at the center" he said.

"What?" Derek asked as he looked over the map, it was definitely a messy pentagram, though what else could you expect from a being with no self control, something that couldn't even think for himself. Plus Stiles' lines were definitely not straight.

"The nemeton" Stiles said with a smile. "At least if I remember it's location correctly" he said and shrugged slightly.

"So you think Josie and the Ahzi are camping out at the nemeton" Derek said, not sure how much he believe that.

"Well no" Stiles said with a small shake of his head, "But the center of the pentagram is about three miles long in all directions…. so I guess we can start at the nemeton and make our way around" he said.

Derek nodded slightly, "Yeah okay, I guess we can do that" he said and looked at Stiles.

"We start tonight" Stiles said and leaned back into the couch and made himself comfortable. He could see that Derek was about to protest so he quickly added, "Sooner the better Derek. More people are going to get killed if we wait any longer."

Derek sighed because he knew he was right, "Okay fine" he said with a grunt. "We can start tonight." he said and looked over at Stiles. "What time you planning on going out?" he asked.

"Ummmmm eight" Stiles suggested, because he really didn't really care when they started.

"Okay, yeah works for me" Derek said with a small shrug.

"And until then I suggest pizza and movies" Stiles said and stood up. "Come on, we can pick up a pizza on the way to my place"

Derek sighed softly and stood up to follow Stiles out of his place. "Why not get something a little different this time. We always get pizza. Aren't you sick of it yet?" he asked.

Stiles scoffed, "No, are you?" he asked and looked over at him.

"Yeah" Derek said with a small nod before he locked up his place. He turned around and looked at Stiles a moment before he started down the stairs to the lobby of his building. He knew they were going to take the jeep so he didn't even bother asking before walking over to the stupid thing.

Stiles sighed softly, "Okay fine, what do you suggest we get then?" he asked as he hurried after him. Derek always tended to walk fast and Stiles had to practically jog to keep up with him. _Not so bad though, I get a pretty good view,_ he thought to himself with a smile before walking around the jeep and getting into the driver's side.

Derek thought a moment, his fingers lightly tapping on the dashboard, "I don't know but not pizza" he said and looked at Stiles. "Literally anything, but pizza" he said.

Stiles shook his head at Derek, "There something wrong with you man" he said joking before starting the engine and pulling away from the curb. "How could you possibly be sick of pizza" he said and sighed softly. "Whatever I guess we can just make something at my place. Shouldn't be that big of a deal" he said

Derek nodded slightly, "Ummm yeah okay" he said with a smile, even though he really wasn't much of a cook.


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Pancakes

**Chapter Thirteen**

 **Pancakes**

 _*Derek_

Derek laughed softly as he looked down at Stiles, the human had slipped and fell to the ground. In the process he tipped over a bag of flour and the entire thing dumped all over his head. He probably be more concerned if it wasn't so hilarious.

"You think this is funny" Stiles asked and glared up at the werewolf. "You're the one who dropped the damn egg and didn't clean it up" he said, which just earned him more laughing. "You're gonna get it" he threatened before shaking his head slightly, making flour go everywhere. Then he pushed himself up onto his feet and glared at the still laughing Derek before grabbing an egg out of the carton and throwing it at him. The laughing ceased immediately, which made Stiles laugh.

Derek looked down at the yolky mess on his chest, "I can't believe you just did that" he said and tried wiping it off, but that really just made it worse. He looked at Stiles and felt a smile tug at his lips, because the human was adorable when he laughed. He just watched Stiles for a moment before grabbing an egg and smashing it on the Stiles's head, because there was no way he was going to let the guy get away with throwing one at him. Plus the look at is face was priceless.

"Oh my god Derek" Stiles said completely shocked that he did that, "What was that for" he gasped and felt the top of his head with a smile.

Derek shrugged, "I don't know what your talking about" he said with a smile. "I didn't do anything" he said.

"Oh sure ya don't" Stiles said and shook his head slightly. "You're a terrible liar Hale" he said. "Let's just finish making the pancakes eh" he said with a sigh before turning back to the counter. He slipped again, the stupid egg was still on the floor, and there was even more now. As he was falling he grabbed onto Derek for support but he somehow lost his balance too and they both fell to the floor.

Derek groaned, "God you weigh a ton" he complained as he looked up at the human that had landed up him, though he also couldn't help but laugh at the situation. Stiles covered in flour and egg was pretty funny too, the guy looked ridiculous.

"Shut up Derek" Stiles said and looked down at him, "What happened dude, thought you were supposed to be a bad-ass werewolf with fast reflexes" he said jokingly with a laugh, he loved seeing Derek laugh, he really didn't do it often enough.

"Sorry, who knew werewolves are prone to slipping on egg as well" Derek said, "and who knows maybe your clumsiness is contagious." he said.

Stiles laughed softly, "Now that's just ridiculous" he said with a smile as he looked down at him, momentarily studying Derek's face.

"You sure about that?" Derek asked and looked up at Stiles, the guy still looked weird. His hair was flat from the egg and his face was almost completely white from all the flour, but he barely noticed any of that as he looked into his eyes . Everything else just seemed to fall away.

"Derek?" Stiles said, his voice kind of husky "You remember what I said about us just being friends?" he asked

"Yeah" Derek said and studied Stiles' face, not really knowing what he was getting at.

"Forget it" he said before leaning down and kissing him, unable to keep himself from doing so any longer. He slowly brought his hand up to his face and lightly caressed his cheek his fingertips brushing against his hair.

Derek tensed as Stiles kissed him, though he quickly relaxed and kissed him right back, having wanted this just as much as him. He slowly ran his hand up his back, his fingers itching to feel his skin beneath them. He tugged lightly on the hem of Stiles' shirt before slowly slipping his fingers under it. The feeling of his skin under his fingertips sent small tingles of pleasure up his fingers and through his hand all the way up his arm. The only thing that felt better than touching him was actually kissing him.

Stiles only pulled away when he needed to breathe, and as tried he catching his breath he smiled down at Derek. He didn't feel the need to pull away at all this time, all he wanted to do was kiss him again. He chuckled softly at the thought, because even if it was true it was kind of crazy. At the moment he really didn't care, so he leaned down again, lightly pressing his lips to Derek's.

Derek smiled up at Stiles, and it only brightened when he heard him laugh before once again leaning in to kiss him. He happily kissed him back, but a the rumbling of an engine pulling into the driveway had him tense up. He reluctantly pulled away and looked at Stiles, "Your dad just pulled up" he said, not really sure how this was suppose to work.

Stiles sighed softly before slowly rolling off Derek to look at the mess of the kitchen. "Well that's not good" he said and looked at Derek. He laughed softly when he saw the frown, "Ah no Derek I mean the mess, he's going to be pissed" he said with a laugh before standing up. "I mean for god's sake look at us" he said and laughed again.

Derek frowned slightly when Stiles rolled off of him and said something about this not being good. Then a moment later he heard his sweet laugh again and he was even more confused, until he explained. He smiled small before standing up, "Hey you're the one who made the mess not me" he said.

Stiles gaped up at him "Excuse me, but you're the one who dropped the egg I slipped on" he said and pulled himself up as well. "Now come on wolfy let's start cleaning" he said.

Derek laughed softly, "Okay fine, I'll help" he said and shook his head slightly. "Why don't you just go upstairs and take a shower. I'll clean up down here" he said and looked around at the mess. They never did get to actually make any pancakes, but whatever.

Stiles sighed softly and looked around a moment before nodding slightly, "Yeah okay" he said and smiled at Derek a moment before kissing him softly on the lips and hurrying out of the kitchen. He hurried up the stairs and went into the bathroom to take a shower.

Derek smiled as he watched him leave before turning back to the mess. He sighed softly before wiping down the counter and putting the eggs away. Then he quickly cleaned out the bowl before searching for a broom, which was about the time that the Sheriff walked into the house.

"Derek" Stilinski questioned when he saw the werewolf looking through the hallway closet. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Derek tensed slightly before turning around to look at the Sheriff, "Umm... looking for a broom" he said, because he really didn't know how else to answer that question.

"Why?" Stilinski asked, only getting a more perplexed look on his face. "What are you doing in my house" he asked.

"Oh uh we… I mean Stiles and I uh… were making pancakes and he made a mess" Derek said a bit awkwardly. He knew the Sheriff knew about him and his son hanging out, but he didn't really seem to like it much. Probably because of what happened almost threee weeks ago, which Derek understood completely.

"And where is he now?" Stilinski asked as he walked into the kitchen, stopping when he saw the mess on the floor. "You guys really did make a mess" he said and turned around to look at Derek again.

"He's upstairs taking a shower. He kind of got covered in flour," Derek said, again because he didn't know how else to answer that question.

"Okay well, just make sure you clean up the mess," Stilinski said before walking around the werewolf and going upstairs to his room so he can change out of his uniform.

Derek let out a sigh as he watched him go, then he grabbed the broom out of the closet and quickly cleaned the mess up off the floor. Though he had to use a bunch of paper towel to clean up the egg and the flour that got mixed into it. It took him a while, but that was okay because by the time he was done so was Stiles.

Stiles ran down the stairs and into the kitchen, "Good you're done," he said and smiled before walking over to him and kissing him softly, because why not. After a moment he pulled away "Come on, guess we don't really need to eat. Let's just watch a movie" he said and grabbed Derek's arm before pulling him into the living room. "What do you want to watch?" he asked.


	14. Chapter Fourteen: Going Out

**Chapter Fourteen**

 **Going Out**

 _*Stiles_

Stiles stumbled over a branch, for the second time and cursed under his breath. It was only because Derek refused to let him turn on his flashlight, said it would attract to much attention. Though with all the tripping he was doing he's probably be better off with the flashlight. He clutched Derek's arm and walked closer to him , trying to be as quiet as possible. He could kind of see where he was going, from the light of the moon, that really didn't keep him from stumbling though. "Are we almost there?" he asked, talking about the nemeton, because they haven't even reach that yet. They'd thought they should start there and kind of just span out.

Derek nodded slightly, "Yeah, just a few more minutes" he said with a small smile and helped try and guide Stiles, since he was the one who said no flashlight.

Stiles stayed close to Derek, holding onto his arm as they walked, he couldn't help but start thinking about the kiss again. "Derek?"

Derek looked at Stiles "Yeah…"

"About the kiss-" Stiles started…..

"What about it?" Derek asked, thinking Stiles might regret it or something.

"What does it mean?" he asked and looked up at him. "I mean, does it mean we're… or that…" he said tailing off, not really sure where he was going with this.

Derek sighed softly, not really sure how to answer that, "I don't know…. let's not…" he said trailing off.

"Oh right….. no labels got it" Stiles said with a small smile, not sure how he felt about that.

Derek was going to say not talk about it right now, but the no labels things worked for him too. "Stiles calm down" he said and smiled down at the human, "You worry too much" he said and chuckled softly.

Stiles scoffed, "Yeah, I worry too much" he said sarcastically. "You sir are the king of worrying" he said and shook his head slightly.

"And here I thought I was the King of Fire" Derek said joking, but soon went quiet. "Shhhh, we're here" he said and a few moments later they walked into a clearing with the stump of the nemeton in the middle of it. He'd forgotten out big the thing was.

"Which way should we go first?" Stiles asked after a moment of looking at the nemeton.

Derek looked around before sniffing the air, "Let's go that way" he said and pointed before pulling Stiles in the direction he indicated. He thought he smelt something strange coming from this direction so he just kind of went with it. It smelt kind of familiar too so he thought it might be the Ahzi, the bestiary said it was supposed to have a distinctive smell, though he really hadn't seen evidence of that, not since the first night anyway.

Stiles watched Derek as they walked, keeping a hold on his arm so he wouldn't trip and fall. "You got a plan for if we find them?" he asked him. "Didn't exactly fair to well with the Ahzi the last time you fought it" he said, though as he thought about it, Derek's only went up against it once.

Derek shrugged, "Don't got a plan" he said honestly and looked at Stiles for a moment. "We were caught of guard last time, didn't know what it was. Might be different this time" he said with a smile.

Stiles nodded slightly, though he really wasn't so sure "Okay" he said and looked around, though he couldn't see very far, he did want to be aware of his surroundings. "From what we know we won't be able to hear it coming" he said and sighed softly. "how exactly are you supposed to be prepared for it?" he asked.

Derek sighed, "I don't know Stiles" he said with a small frown. "Guess we'll just have to just be careful" he said with a shrug.

Stiles nodded slightly, wasn't like there was anything else they could do. "Sounds good I guess" he said. He looked around again, this time because it felt like they were being watched, hell they probably were, "Derek" he whispered, "Do you hear anything?" He asked.

"No why?" Derek asked and looked down at the human.

Stiles shrugged slightly, "I don't know, just feel like we're being watched or something." He said and shrugged again as he looked around a bit more. "Probably nothing" he mumbled, because he wasn't so sure about that.

Derek watched Stiles for a moment before focusing all his senses on their surroundings, just in case the human was right and they were being watched. From what he could tell there was nothing, not even an animal of any sort nearby. Which was strange all by itself, there should at least be something, even if it wasn't the Ahzi or Josie. He didn't tell Stiles about it though, he could already tell the guy was nervous didn't want to make it worse.

* * *

They walked around for a few hours, not finding anything, though the feeling of being watched never did leave Stiles. "Maybe we should just call it a night" Derek suggested after the third hour.

Stiles, who was breathing kind of heavily, nodded slightly "Yeah okay" he said exhausted and ready to start heading back. He leaned against Derek for a moment before making himself walk again, this time back towards the jeep. Unfortunately it would probably take another hour to get there if not longer. "We coming back out tomorrow night" he asked curiously and looked up at Derek with a small tired smile.

Derek looked down at him and chuckled softly "If you still want to tomorrow night I don't see why not" he said with a smile.

Stiles nodded slightly and decided not to think about it at the moment, he'd decide tomorrow.

It took over an hour to get back to the jeep, but it wasn't to bad. Stiles and Derek talked the entire time and it kind of made it just fly by. They both quickly climbed into the jeep and Stiles started the engine before pulling out of the grass and onto the road driving towards Derek's place, had to drop the werewolf off before he could go home.

Derek slowly climbed out of the car once Stiles pulled to a stop in front of his building. He turned to look at Stiles before shutting the door. "See you tomorrow" he said with a smile before moving to close the door.

"Hey Derek?" Stiles said a bit questioning as he looked around, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. He just couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, how Derek couldn't feel it he had no idea. "You think I could stay here tonight" he asked a little awkwardly. "Sleep on the couch."

Derek eyed Stiles not sure why the human wanted to stay, but from the elevated heart rate he could kind of guess. "Yeah sure, but you don't have to sleep on the couch" he said and closed the door.

Stiles smiled before quickly killing the engine and climbing out of the jeep. He grabbed his bag out of the back and locked the doors before hurrying around the jeep and over to Derek. He followed him up to the loft before walking over to the couch and flopping down onto it, exhausted.

 _*Derek_

Derek watched Stiles for a moment before grabbing a pair of sweatpants out of his dresser and walking into the bathroom. He pulled off his jeans and tossed them into the dirty laundry basket. He pulled the sweatpants on before walking out and looking over at Stiles who was in a pair of his own sweatpants, guess he had a pair in the bag. "You're not seriously going to sleep on the couch are you?" Derek asked.

Stiles smiled up at Derek, "Was kind of planning on it" he said with a yawn. "You have a very comfortable couch" he said with a smile.

Derek chuckled "Okay, suit yourself" he said and walked over to the bed and crawled under the covers. "though the bed is better" he said.

Stiles smiled and watched him a moment before turning off the lights. He paused before moving, trying to decide what to do. _Screw it,_ he thought before walking over to the bed and crawling under the covers. Derek was right, his bed was very comfortable, and with the werewolves warm body next to his he felt safe and relaxed. He fell asleep almost immediately, and so did Derek.

* * *

 _*Stiles_

Stiles woke up the next morning snuggled in close to Derek, he groaned softly before slowly rolling away from him. He looked at the time on his phone and saw it wasn't so much morning but the afternoon. He chuckled softly and shook his head slightly before climbing out of the bed and walking into the bathroom. He closed the door behind him before actually going to the bathroom.

Once Stiles was done washing his hands he left the bathroom and walked back over to the bed. He looked down at Derek's sleeping form for a moment, just admiring how peaceful he looked before grabbing his phone off the side table and walking over to the couch. He wasn't going to just leave without a word and he really didn't have anywhere to go right now anyway. So he just went back to work, that's what he'd be doing if he hadn't spent the night anyway.

After almost an hour he heard the sheets on the bed rustle and looked up to see Derek getting up. He smiled at the werewolf, "Good Morning" he said and laughed a bit, "Or should I say good afternoon," he said a bit questioningly.

Derek smiled small, "Either would do I'm sure" he said and walked over to him slowly. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Uhh…. research" Stiles said slowly, feeling a little embarrassed about the fact that he was already working on the case and he's only been up an hour.

Derek chuckled softly, "Of course you are" he said and sat down next to him. "You find anything?" he asked before looking at him. Though before Stiles could actually answer he kissed him softly, slowly bringing his hand up to caress his cheek before slowly pulling away and standing up to go to the kitchen.

"Hmmmmmmm" Stiles hummed before seemingly getting his bearings back he shook his head slightly _tease_ he thought to himself before speaking. "No haven't really found anything new. Just a bunch of different stuff we already know." he said and shrugged slightly before looking over at Derek. He stood up and walked over to him, he was a little sore from so much walking last night, but it wasn't to terrible. "I hope you're not planning on cooking anything, didn't exactly go well last time" he said jokingly.

"Don't know what you're talking about" Derek said and looked at Stiles with a smile. "I thought it went just fine" he said with a smirk.

"Well if you think about it that way then yeah it went great" Stiles said and laughed softly before leaning up and kissing him softly. He pulled away after a moment and stepped away, "But if you think of it any other way, then it was just a big mess and we never actually had any pancakes" he said, which made him realize he was actually very hungry.

Derek chuckled softly, "Okay fine then, what do you suggest?" he asked with a smile. "Because, if I'm not mistaken I'm pretty sure I just heard your stomach growl" he said.

Stiles smiled and nodded slightly "As true as that may be we are not a good cooking pair" he said and thought a moment. "How about you go and take a shower and I'll make something" he said.

"Take a shower….. are you trying to tell me something?" Derek asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah I am" Stiles said with a smirk, "You smell horrible, and I'm saying that with my limited human sense smell" he said and crossed his arms.

Derek laughed softly, "Yeah, okay" he said and shook his head "Better go and take a shower then. Wouldn't want my BO bothering you" he said and snuck in one last kiss before walking away and going to the bathroom. He slowly stripped out of his clothes and tossed them onto the floor before climbing into the shower.

Stiles watched him go before turning around to face the counter. He's never actually been in Derek's kitchen never had to need to be. So he quickly familiarized himself with where everything was, and what he all had, which wasn't much.


	15. Chapter Fifteen: Watching

**Chapter Fifteen**

 **Watching**

 _* Stiles_

Stiles sighed softly as he dove back to his house for the night, they both kind of decided to just not go out tonight. Stiles didn't think they'd find anything anyway, they'd need to switch tactics. That and he was still kind of exhausted and didn't feel like walking in the woods all night again.

Once he got home Stiles went upstairs to his room and slowly got undress before pulling on a pair of sweatpants and crawling into bed. He laid there for a long time just stared at the ceiling. He huffed softly before rolling onto his side and finally trying to get some sleep, though honestly he kind of missed the feeling of Derek's warm body next to him, even if it was only the one time.

 _*Derek_

Derek sighed softly as he sat on the edge of his bed, again trying to remember anything that might have warranted his mother to take his memory away. The only problem was he had no idea what he was supposed to remember, which was probably the point. He sighed heavily and flopped back down on the bed. He ran both his hand over his head and through his hair as he growled with frustration. He hated that he was missing something, that he couldn't remember what he saw….. or what he did. What if this was all his fault? What if this was happening because of something he did when he was younger and he just couldn't remember what it was?

Derek laid there for a while staring up at the ceiling before sitting up and slowly climbing out of bed, _Maybe….._ He opened the drawer on his dresser and pulled a key out before walking over to the chest that was pushed up against the wall. He knelt down next to it before taking the lock in his hand and carefully unlocking it. He set the lock on the ground next to him before pushing the lid open and staring into it. He sighed softly before moving a few things around to find what he wanted. After a few moments he was pulling out a cylindrical case with a triskelion on the lid of it.

Derek walked over to the couch with it and sat down and just stared at it for a long time. There was only one person he could call that would be able to help, and he wasn't sure if he trusted him enough to do this. Wasn't sure if he wanted to do this at all. Did he really want to know if he was the reason this was all happening?

Derek set the case on the coffee table and sighed softly deciding he'd do it, wasn't like he really had a choice. Besides even if he didn't really want to know, he had to know. It would drive him crazy if he didn't figure this out, he hated that part of his past was missing. He huffed before standing up and walking away from the coffee table and going over to the bed to lay down. He was just as tired as Stiles so he crawled under the covers to go to bed. He liked sleeping next to Stiles last night, and could definitely feel his absence, would have to make the human stay the night more often.

Derek grumbled as he woke up to the sound of his phone going off, _What the…._ He thought irritably and rolled over to grab his phone off the side table. He squinted as he turned it on, the bright lightly blinding him momentarily. Once his eyes adjusted to it he saw he had a text message, and couldn't think of who would actually be texting him at this time. He grumbled as he opened the stupid thing. His heart stopped for a moment when he saw what it was "No… No…." he said as he shot out of bed, his eyes still glued to the screen of his phone. Staring at the picture of Stiles sleeping in his bed, with the caption I warned you under it.

Derek ran out of his apartment not bothering with shoes or a shirt as he ran down the stairs and out the front door of his building. He ran as fast as he could down the street, he'd forgotten his keys in his haste but that didn't matter. He could probably run faster than a car right now with how he was feeling.

Derek made it Stiles within just a few minutes and he jumped up onto the roof near his window and climbed inside. When he saw the human still laying in his bed undisturbed he felt himself let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. _Oh thank god._ He thought and let out a relieved sigh.

Stiles mumbled softly and slowly opened his eyes, he smiled when he saw Derek, "What are you doing here" he mumbled, obviously still half asleep.

"Why is your window unlocked?" Derek asked still a little bit too on edge to find Stiles adorable at the moment.

"You broke the lock remember" Stiles mumbled and shifted a bit to get more comfortable. "Last panic attack" he said kind of waking up a bit more now.

Derek cursed under his breathe, just remembering that now. He was about to say something when he felt his phone vibrate again. He frowned slightly when he saw there was another text message. He braced himself before opening, and he still wasn't ready for what he saw. Though this time he just felt unbelievable anger, it festered and boiled in the pit of his stomach as he stared at the picture of him standing in Stiles room the words 'Last Warning' written under it.

Derek cursed angrily before hurrying over to the window and looking out, he couldn't see or hearing anything but he could sure as hell smell it. The things stench lingered in the air and he couldn't believe he hasn't ever smelt this before, was definitely potent.

Stiles sat up in his bed, completely awake now, "Derek what's going on?" he asked and looked over the werewolf. "Why aren't you wearing shoes?" he asked.

Derek looked back at him and sighed softly before walking over to the bed and sitting down next to him. He started explaining what happened a moment later, even showed him the pictures on his phone. "Stiles I think we need to back off" even though he knew the human would be pissed. "This obviously isn't an idle threat. She'll kill you" he said and looked at him pleadingly, hoping he's just be quiet this once and agree.

Stiles shook his head slightly "We can't do that Derek" he said, though he knew this had to be killing Derek. "We know she's after you Derek, it's been staring us in the face this whole time. Even if we back off it's not like I'm going to be safe, she'll still use me against you" he said and smiled small. "Besides I can't just back off if you're in danger. I know I'm not exactly much help but I do know I'd never forgive myself if I did nothing" he said.

Derek shook his head slightly and stared down at his hands not saying anything. He knew Stiles was right, even if they stopped neither of them would be safe. She was coming after him after all. Stiles wouldn't be safe as long as he hung around him…..

Stiles watched Derek for a moment before shaking his head slightly, "Derek, we've been in worse situations than this before. Sure we had more people around then but it doesn't matter. We don't need them to fix this. I mean come on let's face it. I've always kind of been the brain of the operation and you're the muscle" he said jokingly, and just noticed that Derek wasn't wearing a shirt, how he hadn't notice before he had no idea. Though now that he did he couldn't tear his eyes away from the man's ripped abs, _has he always had this nice of arms_ he asked himself as he lightly ran his fingers down them.

Derek looked at Stiles and sighed softly, "It doesn't matter Stiles" he said and was about to continue when he felt Stiles' fingers running down his arm. "I….. I can't protect you" he said as his breath hitched at the feeling of their skin touching.

Stiles looked up and met Derek's eyes, "Yes you can Derek" he said and smiled as he slowly brought his other hand up to his cheek and caressed it softly. "I trust you" he said and let out a slow breath. "And hey, this just means we get to spend more time together" he said joking before leaning in and kissing the werewolf softly. "We'll figure this out" he mumbled before kissing him again.

Derek was about to protest, say this wasn't a time to be joking but then he was being kissed and his mind went blank. He wrapped his arms around Stiles and pulled him closer as he laid them back on the bed, his body hovering over the humans. He ran his hands under his shirt moaning at the feeling, and he ran his hands over his sides.

Stiles broke the kiss long enough to pull his shirt up and over his head, not caring about the still healing wounds on his back and chest. He tossed it aside before wrapping his arms around Derek and pulling him in for another kiss. He deepened it as he moved his body against Derek's.

"Stiles, what is going on in here?" Sheriff Stilinski asked as he opened the door. He froze at what he saw in his son's room. "What the…" he said to shocked to even talk really.


	16. Chapter Sixteen: Awkward

**Chapter Sixteen**

 **Awkward**

 _*Stiles_

Stiles tensed at the sound of his dad's voice and pushed Derek off of him, sending the werewolf to the floor. "Dad!" he said, his voice kind of squeaky. "I ummmm" he said not really sure what to say. "I uhh….."

Sheriff Stilinski shook his head slightly, "We'll talk about this in the morning" he said before turning to look at the werewolf. "I'm sure you can find your own way out" he said before backing out of the room and going back to his own.

Derek groaned softly and sat up as he looked between the sheriff and Stiles. _Well that could have gone better._ He pushed himself up onto his feet and chuckled softly, "Have fun with that conversation" he said and sat down on the bed.

Stiles laughed, "Yeah sorry about pushing you off, was just a little shocked" he said and smiled at Derek.

Derek smiled "Don't worry about it" he said and leaned in to kiss the human. "Would probably have done the same thing" he said, he knew he should leave but he couldn't bring himself. Not with everything that is going on. He stood up anyway though, planning on just sleeping outside. There was no way he was leaving Stiles, when Josie was threatening him like this "I should probably get going" he said and walked towards the window.

Stiles smiled, "Good, I'm glad you're not upset" he said and laid down on his bed, "Now come on let's go to bed" he said and moved over a bit to make room. "And since I know you're not going to actually leave you might as well sleep here with me rather than outside" he said.

Derek chuckled softly, "Your dad probably won't like this" he said, since the guy practically kicked him out. He crawled under the covers with Stiles anyway.

Stiles smiled and snuggled close to his man, "Who cares, I'm eighteen can do what I want" he said and relaxed into the bed.

Derek chuckled softly and wrapped his arm around him, "Okay, but if I get arrested for trespassing I'm blaming you" he said jokingly.

Stiles snorted and shook his head slightly, "Same rules apply to you buddy. You're twenty Three, can do what you want" he said and kissed Derek's cheek before laying back down and closing his eyes. "Now ssssshhhhhh" he said and made himself comfortable before falling asleep.

* * *

 _*Stiles_

Sheriff Stilinski sighed softly as he sat down at the kitchen table and looked at Stiles. "Look, I really don't care if you like guys or whatever" he said, though that did actually surprise him very much. "It's more like your choice in men" he said and study his son for a moment. "Think you could do a little better than Derek" he said, kind of still blaming the werewolf for what's happened to his son.

Stiles shrugged, "Not really into guys dad. I just I don't know" he said and shrugged slightly. "It's hard to explain, but it's because it is Derek dad, can't just be any guy" he said, trying but probably failing as he explained.

Sheriff Stilinski nodded slightly, "riiight" he said and paused a moment as he tried to think of something to say. He never thought he'd have to have this conversation with him, so he really wasn't prepared for it. "How long has this been going on?" he asked after a moment, curious about how long his son has been keeping this a secret.

"Actually only one day" Stiles said with a smile. "The other day when you walked in on the mess was when it started" he said and then the room kind of just fell into an awkward silence, neither of them really knowing what to say now.

Sheriff Stilinski sighed softly and ran a hand over his head "So uh…. What is it?" he asked after a while. "Between you two I mean?" he asked, kind of wondering if this was just a fling or a faze. Weird faze but ya never know.

Stiles shrugged slightly, "I don't know dad, basically just start yesterday. Haven't put a label on it and I don't know if we will" he said and shrugged again. "I do know how I feel around him though." He said with a smile. "He makes me feel safe, and warm inside. Whenever I see him I can't help but smile, and I love spending time with him. He's amazing dad, if you'd take the time to get to know him you'd agree" he said

Sheriff Stilinski smiled small, "Okay, I guess I can take your word on that" he said and study his son once more as the awkward silence grew. "Though I guess as long as you're happy that's all that matters" he said after several moments.

Stiles smiled and nodded slightly, "Yeah I'm very happy" he said and chuckled softly before standing up. "You're great dad" he said and kissed his dad's cheek before hurrying out of the kitchen. "See ya later" he said and pulled his keys out of his pocket before hurrying out the door, glad to be down with that awkward conversation. He walked over to his jeep and started the engine before pulling out of the driveway. He sped down the street towards Derek's place, though he didn't think he was even there. He was pretty sure he never actually left his house, but he also figured that the werewolf would be there soon, if he had made it there before him.

Stiles slowly climbed out of his jeep and locked the doors before heading up to Derek's loft. He paced in the hallway for a few moments, trying to shake off the awkwardness of the conversation he had with his dad. After a moment he realized he was being ridiculous and just knocked on the door.

 _*Derek_

Derek had decided not to listen in on the conversation Stiles was having with his dad and just went home. He figured he'd be okay with the Sheriff, and he knew that Stiles would probably come over once they were done so he really had nothing to worry about. It was almost a half an hour before he heard the knock on his door, the scent of his human drifting in under the door. He inhaled, a smile spreading across his face as he walked over to open the door. "Hey" he said as he opened it and let him in. "How'd it go?" he asked.

Stiles smiled at Derek as he walked in, "Like you don't already know" he asked, still thinking the werewolf had been eavesdropping.

Derek chuckled, "I don't" he said and shook his head slightly. "I left so the two of you could have some privacy" he said.

"Oh, well it was awkward" Stiles said and scoffed slightly. "He okay with the whole guy thing, just doesn't like you" he said and walked over to the couch to sit down. "But whatever, don't really care what he thinks" he said and looked at him.

Derek smiled and walked over to sit down next to him, "That's good I guess" he said, a little bummed that his boyfriend's dad didn't like. _What happened to no labels?_ He asked himself with a small shake of his head.

Stiles smiled and moved a little closer to him, "Don't worry about it. He'll warm up to you, everyone kind of does eventually" he said with a smirk. "You're just kind of an acquired taste" he said jokingly.

"Oh gee thanks Stiles" Derek said with a smile before kissing him softly.


	17. Chapter Seventeen: Forgotten Memories

**Chapter Seventeen**

 **Forgotten Memories**

 _*Derek_

"Well isn't that just adorable" Peter said as he swung open the door and walked into the loft. "You two are a couple now, can't say I'm surprised" he said and closed the door behind him before walking over to the two.

Stiles groaned and leaned back on the couch, "What is he doing here?" he asked and looked at Derek.

Derek sighed "I called him" he said and looked over at Peter. "I need his help with something" he said.

"Like what" Stiles asked, completely horrified by the prospect. "What could you possibly need his help with. He's a freaking psychopath"

"Wow" Peter said and clutched his chest. "That hurts Stiles….. your words hurt me" he said before rolling his eyes.

Derek ignored them both and grabbed the case off the counter, "I need him to help me remember what happened" he said and walked over to Peter. "Don't trust him anymore then you do, but he's all I got" he said and opened the case up and held it out to Peter.

Peter rolled his head slightly "God not this again…." he grumbled before taking the thing from him. "Get rid of the human" he said and walked around him and over to the couch. He sat down, practically on top of Stiles so he'd move.

Stiles grumbled as he quickly moved out of the way so he wouldn't get sat on. _Jackass_. He walked over to Derek and gave him a look, "I'm not leaving" he told him.

Derek smiled, "And you don't have to leave" he said, as he slowly walked over to the couch. "But you do have to stay out of the way" he said as he sat down on the coffee table. "Go sit on the bed" he said, trying to say it in a way, so that Stiles won't get pissed at him.

Stiles gritted his teeth before doing what he asked, "What are you doing?" he asked as he sat down on the edge of the bed and looked over at the two werewolves.

"We're going to access my memories, the ones that my mom took away" Derek said and looked at Stiles and smiled reassuringly before turning around to face Peter. "Come on, let's get this over with" he said with sigh.

Peter grimaced and flexed his fingers over the opening of the case, "You better not be lying to me" he said and glared at Derek before sticking his hand in, he grimaces as Talia's nails dug into his own nail buds. "This better work" Peter grumbled and shook his head slightly before standing up. "Should probably sit on the couch or something" he said, really not caring what his nephew decided.

Derek nodded slightly before standing up and moving to the couch, they were both kind of just ignoring Stiles' presence right now. He sat down on the couch and let out a slow breathe as Peter walked around to stand behind. "I'm ready he said before his uncle could even ask. A second later he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck and then everything went black and memories started flashing through his head before it stopped settling onto one.

 _Derek smiled down at her, his entire face lighting up as he looked into her beautiful hazel eyes. "I love you" he said as he slowly raised his hand to caress her cheek, his fingertips lightly tracing the side of her face as he pushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear._

" _I love you too" She told him, with an equally as happy smile. She ran her hands up his sides slowly, her fingertips caressing his bare skin. "This was great" she said closing her eyes and just relaxing into the grass beneath her, listening to the birds as they chirped._

 _Derek nodded slightly in agreement, "Yeah it was" he said and smirk before leaning down and kissing her neck and down her bare shoulder. He moved his hands down her sides moaning softly as he felt her skin beneath his._

 _She chuckled softly, "Come on Derek, we just had sex, you really ready for round two" she said and laughed as she joking pushed him back._

" _I'm always ready for round two baby" Derek said jokingly and pulled back so he could look down at her. He loved looking at her, she was just so beautiful, "But if you're not ready that's fine too" he said with a smirk_

" _Oh really" She said and laughed softly before rolling them over so she was on top. "You think I'm not ready, is that it" she said._

 _Derek laughed softly and nodded, "Oh I know you're not ready" he said with a cocky smirk._

" _Is that so" She said and stared down at him for a moment, a grin spreading across her face. "We'll see about that" she said before leaning down and kissing him deeply._

* * *

 _Derek finished pulling on the last of his clothes and turned to look at her, sad that this was over, that'd he'd have to go back home. They'd just had sex for the first, and second time, it sucked that he had to leave so early after. "Same place tomorrow?" he asked, though he was just talking about them hanging out._

 _She smiled widely and nodded, "Of course" she said and walked over to him. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. "You sure you're up for this" she asked and searched his face for any doubt._

" _I love you" Derek said and smiled at her, "And I have no doubt in my mind that leaving with you next week is the right choice" he said and laughed softly. "I would do anything to be with you" he said, and meant it with all his heart. He leaned in and kissed her softly slowly deepening it. He was about to pull away to catch his breath when he felt himself ripped away from her and thrown across the clearing. He grunted as his back slammed into a tree and he landed on the ground roughly._

" _What the hell do you think you're doing to my daughter" An older woman growled and stood in front of the girl defensively. "Josie, get out of here" she told her before running at the boy. Her and her daughter were both omegas, so any other werewolf was a threat to their safety. Especially a boy from a pack that rejected them as members._

 _Josie shook her head slightly, "No mom stop it's okay, he'd never hurt me" she shouted, but the older women wasn't listening. All her attention was directed at the teen boy before her. She bared her teeth at him before slashing out with her claws._

 _Derek scrambled away from her, not really even understanding why she was attacking him in the first place. "Please stop. I didn't do anything" he pleaded as he barely dodged out of her reach. "I didn't do anything" he insisted._

 _The mother didn't say anything as she moved closer her eyes glowing bright blue, and looked as cold as ice. She grabbed onto his ankle and pulled him across the ground towards her, her claws digging into his flesh. "Son of Talia, that alone makes you deserve death" she growled, able to smell the bitch on him, making her hate him even more. This was all because of Talia, revenge for turning her and her daughter away, for giving them a death sentence._

" _Mom stop" Josie yelled and ran over to stop her mom from hurting him farther. "He didn't do anything. Just let him go" she said and tried to pull her mom away from him._

 _The mother growled and pushed her daughter away before turning back around and glaring at Derek. She snarled viciously before slashing out her her claws digging into Derek's flesh._

" _Mom… no Stop" Josie yelled, on the verge of tears._

 _The mother ignored her, not even hearing the annoying yammering as she pursued Derek who was again scrambling away from her._

 _Derek moved away from her quickly before climbing onto this feet and running, running towards his house. He would be safe there. Unfortunately he really hadn't made if far before he felt claws digging into the flesh off his back. He screamed in pain as he fell forward landing on his knees. He looked around frantically looking for something he could use against her, he was new to the werewolf thing so he couldn't really change on command. Never happened when he actually wanted it too._

 _Before Derek even got the chance to even really look he felt claws digging into his back again and he let out another scream before falling to the ground. He let out several shaky breaths as the mother turned him over onto his back so she could look him in the eyes as she killed him. "Please no," he sobbed._

 _The mother smiled, enjoying the fact that she was causing him pain, made the revenge even sweeter. She watched him squirm for a moment before wrapping her fingers around his throat, her claws digging into his skin._

 _Derek gasped as his airway was cut off and clawed at her hand trying to peel it away from his throat, but it wasn't happening. He reached out with his hands, hoping to find something, anything that he could hit her with, to get her off of him. He felt his fingers wrap around a large rock. Without even really thinking about it he lifted it up and smashed it against her head as hard as he could. He felt her fingers loosen and took in a deep breath and quickly rolled away from her. He jumped up to his feet and scrambled away from her limp body. He raised his hands to his throat as he stared at her, the puncture wounds healing quickly. She, she however wasn't healing._

 _Josie ran up to him, her eyes landing on her mother, "Mom" she said and ran over to her dropping onto the ground next to her. "What did you do?" she yelled at Derek as she carefully rolled her mom onto her back. "Mom…. mom" she sobbed as she gently shook her, trying to wake her up, but nothing was happening. "I don't hear a heartbeat" she cried, her shoulders starting to shake. "You killed her" she yelled._

" _I d-d-didn't mean to" Derek said and shook his head slightly, this couldn't be happening. He couldn't have killed someone it just wasn't possible._

 _Before he could really even say anything else Talia ran over to Derek having heard the screaming. She quickly assessed him, making sure her son was okay before turning to look at what had happened. She glared at Josie, "Leave and never come back" she growled and pulled the girl away from her mother making her stand up. "Take the body and leave. If I ever see you again I'll kill you myself" she said, her eyes flashing red._

 _Josie just stood there, looking between Derek and Talia, not wanting to leave Derek. She loved him, even after all this she still loved him._

" _Mom, stop it's not her fault" Derek said, trying to calm the situation down. He didn't want Josie to leave._

" _I said leave" Talia growled loudly, her eyes turning red the same time her fangs extended._

 _Josie cowered before quickly bending over and picking up her mother's body and running._

 _Talia watched her go before turning around to face Derek, "Come on let's go" she said and lightly took his arm and pulled him back to the house._

Derek gasped as Peter pulled the claws out of Derek's neck, "did it work?" he asked and grimaced as he slowly pulled his sister's claws out of his nail beds one by one.

Derek nodded slightly, "Yeah" he said and frowned slightly as he carefully felt the sore part of his neck. "I remember everything" he said with a sad sigh. _This really is all my fault._ He thought to himself and looked down at the ground.

Stiles frowned as he looked over at Derek, "What happened?" he asked as he walked over to the werewolf and sat down on the couch next to him. He looked at Peter, "You can leave now" he said and glared at him a moment.

Peter rolled his eyes before dropping the claws in the container and walking out of the loft, really not caring to hear about his nephews troubled past.

As soon as Peter was gone Stiles took Derek's hand in his and smiled small, "It's okay Derek, whatever it is it doesn't matter. It's in the past, whatever she's doing not is her fault not yours"

Derek let out a small sighed, "I'm not entirely sure that's true" he said and then went ahead and started explaining what happened as best as he could.


	18. Chapter Eighteen: Little Difference

**Chapter Eighteen**

 **Little Difference**

 _*Derek_

Derek sighed softly as Stiles went through his plan, it's been a few days since they've found out why Josie is doing what she's doing. Stiles has been acting a little weird since he told him everything that he remembered, but other than that he didn't seem to care that another person has been to added his killed list.

Now that they had things kind figured out, and Derek had an idea about where Josie might be camping out, they were going to try something a little different. Emphasis on little. "What makes you think this thing is going to make a difference" he asked the human and held up a camera, not getting why they would need it.

"It's an infrared camera Derek. We'll be able to see heat signatures with it. Since you can't hear the Ahzi, and they've somehow managed to mask their scent maybe this is the next best thing. It's not like they can hide something like that" he said and smiled small. "And if we still don't find anything, it'll just be a romantic walk through the forest" he said jokingly.

Derek shook his head slightly, and just kind of just ignored the last sentence. "And where exactly did you get this camera thing?" he asked.

Stiles gaped for a moment "Oh well ummmm I might have just borrowed it from my dad" he said.

"You mean you stole it from your dad" Derek said with a smirk.

Stiles scoffed, "No, borrowed. I plan on giving it back eventually"

Derek chuckled "Right" he said and shook his head slightly.

Stiles glared at him before huffing slightly before taking the camera from him. "Come on Derek I'm sure this will work" he said with a smile. "No more stalling let's go" he said and stood up.

Derek chuckled softly "Fine" he said and stood up as well. "But let's return at a decent hour this time eh" he said with a smile. "and you planning on staying the night again?" he asked hoping the answer would be yes.

Stiles shrugged "I don't know, depends" he said and smiled before walking towards the door. "Though probably yes" he said and turned to smile at Derek. "I've grown accustomed to sleeping next to someone" he said with a smirk before opening the door and walking out.

Derek sighed softly, trying to hide a grin before walking out and locking the doors behind him. He hurried to catch up to the human and followed him out to the jeep.

* * *

Derek sat down next to Stiles on the ground just a few feet away from the nemeton. He waited as the human caught his breath and pulled a few things out of his bag."You sure you're up for this?" he asked.

Stiles nodded slightly "Yeah, of course I'm up for it" he said and looked over at Derek. "Here you can work the camera." he said and turned the thing on before giving it to him.

Derek nodded slightly and took the camera from him, then he looked through it to see how the thing worked. He wasn't that impressed by the device but it did it's job and that's all that really mattered. "You ready to start walking again" he asked after a few moments and looked at Stiles.

Stiles nodded slightly and piled his stuff back into his bag before standing up. "Yeah I'm ready" he said with a smile and looked around for a moment. "Which way is it?" he asked and looked around again.

Derek stood up and shrugged slightly, "Ummmmmm" he said and looked around a moment before walking, making sure it was was the right way, it's been awhile since he's been there. "It's this way" he said, and sighed softly.

Stiles nodded and swung his bag over his shoulder before hurrying to catch up to Derek. He grabbed onto his arm so if he tripped he wouldn't fall on his face, Derek still refused to let him use a flashlight.

Derek looked through the stupid camera as he walked, making sure to look around him, so he wouldn't miss anything. He wasn't so sure this plan would work, but he had to admit that it was at least a little bit of an advantage, they might actually be able to see them coming this way. If they even found them, the theory about the center of the pentagram might be completely bogus. That's where his and Josie's spot just happened to be, just barely within the three mile center.

Derek jumped slightly when something with a heat signature ran across the screen on the camera _What the hell?_ He moved the camera trying to find it again but it was gone, which he definitely wasn't liking. "Time to go" he said after a moment and started pulling Stiles in the opposite direction of the creature.

"Wait, what why?" Stiles asked and he stumbled behind Derek as he pulled him. "What's the hurry? Did you see something?" he asked.

Before Derek could answer Stiles was pulled out of his hands and thrown into a tree. He growled angrily, his face immediately morphing into that of a werewolf. He glared at the Ahzi before charging at it.

 _*Stiles_

Stiles groaned as he pushed himself up onto his knees. He quickly looked around, not even sure what was happening. Then he saw it, Derek and the Ahzi fighting, neither one of them having an upper hand. He felt his breathing starting to pick up, his heart pounding in his chest. _Not now_ he groaned, because he knew what was happening. He tried to peel his eyes away from the scene unfolding before him, but he couldn't. It was all he could seem to focus on, his breathing becoming more and more erratic as it continued.

 _No no no no no no_ Stiles chanted in his head as Derek went down the Ahzi hovering over him. _I can't do anything. I'm useless_. He thought to himself as he tried getting himself to get up and help, to do anything but he just couldn't make himself get up. He shook his head frantically and closed his eyes. _Calm down calm down calm down,_ he thought to himself over and over again, trying force his heart rate to go down, for his breathing to even, but it just wasn't happening.

Stiles flinched when he heard Derek scream, _no no no no._ He was still shaking his head, still willing himself to get calm down so he could help but it still wasn't happening. His finger tips started feeling numb as his hands shook. "No" he yelled refusing to let this be the end.

"Stiles get out of here" Derek yelled as he tried pushing the Ahzi off of him. When that didn't work he dug his claws into it's shoulder. "Run Stiles" he yelled, because he doubted he'd win this fight and then Stiles would be next. "Now"

Stiles blinked when he heard Derek's voice, and just focused on that and only that for the time being. Every time the man spoke he felt himself calm down, even though it wasn't exactly peaceful sounding.

"Stiles what are you doing? Get the hell out of here" Derek yelled again as the struggle between him and the Ahzi continued.

Stiles shook his head slightly before forcing himself to stand up, actually able to do it this time. He was shaky on his feet and stumbled several times as he made his way over to them. He braced himself against a tree trying to calm down his breathing and his still rapidly beating heart. He let out a slow breath before pulling out his pocket knife, wouldn't do much but it was something. He flipped the blade out and held it defensively before running at them and stabbing the creature in the back.

The creature screeched and whipped around to shove Stiles away, and tossed the human onto the ground.

Derek growled and pushed the Ahzi the rest of the way off of him. He was about to make a killing blow when the thing suddenly ran off into the forest. _Why does it keep doing that?_ He growled to himself angrily. He blinked a few times and let out a shaky breath before falling to his knees feeling weak. "Stiles, are you okay?" he asked.

Stiles stared at him blankly for a moment, "Am I okay?" he asked and hurried over to his side. "You're the one who's hurt not me" he said and examined Derek to make sure he was in fact okay.

Derek chuckled, "Don't think I didn't notice the panic attack Stiles." he said and looked over at him. "You're not okay. You need more time… or something" he said, not really sure what was going on with him, though he knew why, it was the attack.

Stiles sighed softly, "I'm sorry I don't know what happened" he said looked over Derek, still kind of breathing heavily himself. "I've never froze like that before" he said with another sigh. He turned his attention back to him "Are you okay?" he asked, more worried about the werewolf then himself.

Derek nodded slightly, "I'm fine. I'll heal" he said and looked over at Stiles. "We're not coming out here again" he said. "It's too dangerous, and you're obviously not ready for this" he said.

Stiles sighed "Derek come on we've already had this conversation. I'm not going sto-"

Derek shook his head slightly "I'm not saying we have to stop Stiles, you're just not going to come out here with me anymore" he said firmly. "You had a panic attack Stiles, you could have gotten yourself killed." he said. "I think you just need more time"

Stiles decided not to argue and just nodded, "Fine" he said and trailed his fingers down Derek's chest examining the claw marks. "We should get out of here" he said after a few moments. "You ready?" he asked, wanting to make sure the werewolf wouldn't needlessly push himself.

Derek nodded slightly "Yeah I'm okay" he said and smiled small at Stiles, glad that he hadn't argued with him. He slowly pushed himself up onto his feet and braced himself on a tree.

Stiles watched him for a moment before wrapping an arm around his waist to help hold him up. "Come on, can't be any harder than holding you up in a pool for two hours" he said jokingly.

Derek scoffed "Right" he said and wrapped on of his arm around Stiles' shoulders before starting to walk. Wasn't so sure he actually needed the help, but he liked being this close to the human anyway.


	19. Chapter Nineteen: The Clearing

**Chapter Nineteen**

 **The Clearing**

 _*Derek_

Derek rolled over in bed and smiled when he felt Stiles' body next to his. He wrapped his arms around the human and gently pulled him closer before relaxing into the bed again. He took in Stiles' wonderful scent and sighed contently before falling back to sleep. It's been three days since they were attacked by the Ahzi in the woods, and it's been a good three days. Him and Stiles have been practically inseparable, and it helped that they barely mention Josie or the Ahzi. They took a small break, it was unfortunate that it would be over soon.

Stiles grumbled and snuggled in closer to Derek "Should probably get up" he mumbled and nudged Derek slightly. "Gots lots to do" he mumbled before snuggling closer and relaxing back into the bed. He mumbled a few more times before falling back to sleep, deciding that he didn't care. They could talk to Peter some other time, reschedule it.

* * *

"Oh my god does he ever shut up" Stiles groaned angrily and turned to glare at Peter.

Peter chuckled, "Well I would, but annoying you is just so much fun I don't think I can stop" he said and rolled his eyes before turning to Derek. "Was it really necessary to bring him, I'm sure he's not worth much out of the bedroom"

"That's it I'm going to kill him" Stiles said and pulled out the hunting knife he started carry. He turned around to actually stab Peter but unfortunately Derek stopped him before he could.

Derek chuckled softly and turned Stiles back around, "Come on now, we're here, don't need to worry about him" he said and took Stiles' hand before walking into the clearing. He knew he said he wouldn't bring Stiles out again, but the human wouldn't shut up about it until he agreed to allow him to come. Besides knowing Stiles he'd probably just come out here on his own anyway. "This is where Josie and I would always meet to hang out. Since she was an omega I wasn't suppose to be hanging out with her, so it was all a secret" he said, though he was sure Stiles already knew that.

Peter chuckled softly, "Oh I remember hearing about that now" he said with a smile. "You bashed some omega's head in. We were told never to bring it up again, completely forgot about it until now" he said and laughed softly. "Is that what this is all about. You killed the whore's mother" he said.

Derek rolled his eyes, "Shut up Peter" he said and shook his head slightly, wondering why they got him to come with, in the first place. He looked around the clearing and sighed softly, "Guess she's not staying here" he said and shrugged. "Was worth a try" he said.

Stiles nodded slightly "Yeah it was," he said and looked around, since he could actually see this time, it was around noon. They decided to go during the day, thinking she might actually be here now since she does most of her shenanigans at night. He smiled small and turned to look up at him. "It's nice here, must have been very romantic" he said jokingly. "Don't tell me I missed out on that Derek" he said with a small laugh.

Derek chuckled and shook his head slightly, "Oh no, definitely not" he said jokingly and pulled Stiles in close and kissed him softly.

Peter gagged, "Eh god, I'm leaving" he said and shook his head slightly before turning to go. "Have fun being killed" he said and was about to walk out of the clearing when Josie suddenly jumped down from a tree.

"Wouldn't leave just yet Peter, the fun's just about to begin" Josie said a smirk spreading across her face as she stood up straight. "We all have a lot to talk about" she said and chuckled softly.

Peter rolled his eyes and moved to leave, because he honestly didn't care what happened to Derek or Stiles, but a second later the Ahzi was standing in front of him and roughly tossed him into a tree on the other side of the clearing.

Josie walked over to Peter, who was sprawled out on the ground barely conscious and pulled some restraints out of her bag. She quickly tied him up before turning to watch the Ahzi and Derek fight. She had an eye on Stiles too, but she really wasn't worried about the human, wasn't like he could do much.

Josie sighed softly, getting bored as the fight went on longer then she would have liked. She also didn't like that it looked like Derek was winning. She looked around the clearing for a moment, her eyes landing on Stiles, who had a knife raised looking like he was about to stab the Ahzi or something. She smirked before hurrying up behind him and ripping the knife out of his hands, "Give up Derek" she yelled before grabbing Stiles and pulling him away from them and to the center of the clearing, "Or I'll kill him" she said her claws extended and held against Stiles' throat.

Derek looked over at them and wasn't even given the chance to surrender before he was being slammed into the ground by the Ahzi. He gritted his teeth in pain as he felt his claws being dug into his back.

"Careful, I want him alive" Josie said and let go of Stiles, just kind of tossing him aside. She pulled a pair of handcuffs out of her bag and quickly used them on Derek. She pulled his arms behind his back and handcuffed his wrists together.

"Just kill me and get it over with" Derek growled and struggled against her hold.

"Oh, but that wouldn't be as fun Derek" Josie said and leaned down to whisper in his ear. "I want you to suffer first" she said and chuckled softly before standing up. "Don't let him get up" she told the Ahzi, and it obeyed by practically just sitting on Derek's back.

Josie looked at Derek for a moment and sighed softly, "I waited here for you, you know" she said and slowly knelt down next to him. "I slept here on the ground for days" she said and chuckled softly. "Took a while for me to realize that you abandoned me" she said. "After you killed my mother."

Derek rolled his eyes, "I didn't remember anything. My mom took away my memories of you" he said and looked up at her, though it was kind of difficult since he was laying on his stomach and his hands were handcuffed behind his back.

Josie smiled, "I know, which is why I convinced Kate Argent to burn your house to the ground" she said and chuckled softly. "Did you really think that blond bimbo could have done that on her own." she smirked before slowly running her fingers through his hair. "You know it was my idea, for her to get you to fall in love with her. Wanted to make sure you knew it was your fault whether you remembered me or not" she said and chuckled softly before standing up and walking closer to Stiles, still kind of having an eye on him.

"You're sick" Stiles spat, and glared up at her, but didn't dare make a move. He knew that would only end badly, so there was no point in trying.

Josie ignored Stiles keeping her attention on Derek, "Was a while before I realized four Hales made it out of the fire" she said and smiled. "Very disappointed, but then you could imagine my surprise when you all just started killing each other" she said with a small, bone chilling, laugh. "Peter killed Laura, then you killed Peter, who then came back to life" she said and turned to look at him. "Great trick by the way. Definitely going to have to teach me how to do that." she said told the older werewolf with a smile.

"Untie me and I will" Peter said with a small growl.

Josie didn't actually say anything else to him, she didn't particularly care to pay any more attention to him just yet. "Now Derek I could kill you right now, but I'm not going to, well probably not" she said and looked at Stiles. "That really all has to do with him" she said.

Stiles tensed and looked around as if she could be looking at someone, anyone other than him. "Me? What is that supposed to mean?" he asked, not wanting to be the reason that she does kill Derek.

"Leave him out of this Josie, this has nothing to do with him" Derek said and glared at her. "Just let him go."

Josie nodded "I'll take that into consideration, after I ask him to do one simple little thing" she said and pulled a bottle of black liquid out of her bag and dropped it in front of Stiles. "Drink it" she said.

Stiles grimaced and tentatively picked the bottle up, "What is it?" he asked and looked up at her.

"Ahzi blood" Josie said and chucked softly when Stiles dropped it like it was suddenly boiling hot. "Drink it or I'll make Derek drink it" she said and knelt down next to him and picked the bottle back up and held it out to him.

Stiles stared at the bottle, "What will it do" he asked as he took the bottle from her, wondering if she knew because he had no idea, that page had been torn out of the book.

"To you, I'm not so sure, call this an experiment" Josie said with a smile. "I do however know exactly what will happen to Derek, already experimented on that" she said with a smirk. "I'd say ask Cora, but she's already dead in ditch somewhere" she said, a smirk spreading across her face as she heard Derek's growl.

Derek growled, "You bitch, I going to kill you" he yelled and struggled violently against his binds and the Ahzi.

"I already killed your sister, want to make it your boyfriend too" Josie snapped before turning back to Stiles to face him. "You know I was pleasantly surprised, the screaming kind of deafened me a bit, but other than that I was quite pleased with how it turned out." she said with a smile. "When it was all done with I actually cut her open, amateur autopsy you could call it" she said ignoring Derek's struggles, and the horrified look on Stiles' face. "What I saw was kind of surprising" she said and chuckled softly. "They're really aren't any words to describe what I saw exactly, all I can say is that it sort dissolves their insides" she said with a smirk. "It's a slow process, what with their body trying to heal it the entire time" she said. "The question is, are you willing to risk the same happening to you, or are you just going to let Derek take one for the team" she asked.

"Stiles, don't you dare" Derek growled, "Just get out, run" he yelled and started struggling again.

Stiles stared at Derek for the longest time not saying anything. _He's willing to do it._ He thought to himself and immediately realized that he was too. _Chance that it won't even happen to a human anyway_ he said to himself to kind of reassure his decision. He met Derek's gaze for just a moment and knew he was doing the right thing. He slowly twisted the cap off the top of the bottle, "You swear you won't hurt him, you'll let him go" he said, wanting to make sure he had this right. That she wouldn't hurt Derek if he did this.

"Not tonight no and…. yeah I'll let him go... for now" Josie said, deciding not lie. "And I promise I won't use the blood when I do. I have other methods in mind" she said.

"Stiles, don't do it" Derek begged and struggled harder. "Please just don't do it. Run" he yelled hoping to god the human would just listen to him just this once. "Don't listen to her, she's a liar" he said.

Stiles sighed, not sure if what she said exactly made it worth it, he knew she could be lying. That she probably was lying, but that didn't make him second guess his choice, he refused to watch Derek die when he could do something about it. At least this way he could possibly make it out of it, he could still survive. He looked at Derek once more "I love you" he said and ignored his protests before downing the contents of the bottle.


	20. Chapter Twenty: What's to Come

**Chapter Twenty**

 **What's to Come**

 _*Stiles_

Stiles gagged spitting up some of the gruesome liquid, "There done" he said and looked up at her, still gagging from the horrible taste of the blood "Let him go" he demanded.

Josie nodded slightly, "Okay" she said with a smile and shooed the Ahzi away. She pulled the key to handcuffs out of her pocket, along with a folded up piece of paper. She straddled Derek' back and smirked as he struggled and yelled a lot of profanity. She leaned down and whispered in his ear, "Just a little something I borrowed from Mr. Deaton's book" she whispered as she slid the folded up piece of paper into his back pocket. "Hope you don't mind" she said and chuckled softly before placing the key in his hand and getting off of him. "See you twenty four hours Stiles" she said and then ran off into the woods.

Stiles gagged a few more times before pushing himself up onto his feet. He quickly stumbled over to Derek. He took the key from him and quickly uncuffed him, though he only had time to do one before Derek practically ripped his hands free and jolted up to look at Stiles.

Derek quickly moved to rest on his knees and looked over Stiles, "Are you okay? You shouldn't have done that? What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked, his questions kind of just running together.

Stiles nodded slightly, "Yeah I'm fine, I don't feel any different" he said, "And there was no way I wasn't going to do it Derek" he said.

Derek grumbled slightly "I know, but that doesn't change anything. You shouldn't have done it" he said and sighed softly, and just hoped that everything would be okay, but he doubt that. Josie had a reason for having Stiles drink that blood, there had to be a reason. Just as those thoughts entered his mind he remember that Josie had put something in his back pocket. He slowly pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket.

"What is that?" Stiles asked and grimaced slightly, the blood definitely wasn't sitting well with his stomach.

"She said it's from the book Deaton gave us" Derek said and watched Stiles for a moment, he'd noticed him grimace and he wasn't liking it. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked.

Stiles nodded slightly "Yeah I'm sure. For right now I am anyway" he said with a small smile, trying to reassure Derek. Though he kind of knew that he was lying to him, he could tell there was something wrong. "What does it say?

Derek frowned when he heard the slight skip in Stiles' heartbeat, but he didn't say anything about it, talking wouldn't change anything. He carefully unfolded the piece of paper and read it, "We have to go" he said and quickly stood up pulling Stiles up with him.

"Why what does it say?" Stiles repeated, since he didn't answer the question the first time.

"Hello, either one of you going to bother untying me?" Peter asked, kind of annoying that they hadn't done it yet.

Derek grumbled before quickly running over to his uncle and cutting the rope that held him. "There" he growled before running back over to Stiles and taking his hand and hurrying out of the clearing.

"Derek slow down, I can't move that fast" Stiles said screamed when a sudden pain seared through his skull. He fell to his knees clutching his head for what felt like forever but was probably no longer than a minute before the pain just went away completely.

"Stiles… Stiles what's wrong?" Derek asked a bit frantically when he saw Stiles go down and knew it had to be because of the Ahzi blood.

Stiles sat there for a moment before slowly letting his head go, like the pain stopping was just a trick and it would start up again in just a second or something. "I'm okay" he said and looked up at Derek. "It stopped….. for now" he said and smiled small.

Derek looked over Stiles studying him, "We need to get you home" he said, and slowly helped the human stand up. "We should hurry" he said and started moving again, though he was going slower than last time.

* * *

"We're almost there" Stiles said, he could see the blue of the jeep through the trees. He pulled his keys out of his pocket and handed them to Derek, knowing the werewolf would demand to drive.

Derek took the keys and let go of Stiles' hand before hurrying over to the driver's side. He He climbed in and quickly started the engine before waiting for Stiles.

Stiles moved a bit slower than Derek, too tired to move any faster at the moment. Didn't help that a pain was starting to move up his legs. He was about to open the door and climb in when a sharp pain shot up his legs. His body slammed against the door as he fell to his knees with a loud groan. It felt as if the bones in his legs and arms were shifting and growing before snapping back to normal.

"Stiles!" Derek yelled and shot out of the jeep and ran over to him. "What is it? Where does it hurt?" he asked, not wanting to touch him and make it worse.

Stiles let out a shaky breath, the pain still not receding, "My legs" he gasped and groaned in pain. "I can't…. I can't move" he gasped and screamed as the pain worsened and moved up his back. It was the same thing, his bones shifting and growing before snapping back into place.

Derek frowned, hating that he couldn't do anything to help, he hated this whole situation. He had hoped what the paper said had been a lie, which was why he wanted to get back home and see if the page fit. "Is there anything I can do" he asked, a bit panicky.

Stiles gritted his teeth to keep from screaming again he reached out with his hand and grabbed Derek's. He couldn't bring himself to actually speak, so he just squeezed his hand instead, though it got tighter as the pain increased. Then as quickly as it came it left again, and Stiles let out a relieved sigh. He opened his eyes slowly, "It's stopped" he said tentatively, still breathing heavily. "What' happening to me?" he looked up at Derek. This wasn't anything like what Josie said, so he knew it had to be different. "What did the paper say" he asked for the third time.

Derek sighed and handed it to him, "it could be wrong" he said quickly, as he heard Stiles' heart speed up as he read it. "It might not have even come from the book Deaton gave us" he said trying to reassure him as well as himself.

Stiles shook his head slightly and shakily handed the piece of paper back "No, it's true" he said and took a shaky breath, "I can feel it, I know it's true" he said. "I'm going to be just like that thing." he with a deep frown. "I'm turning into a Ahzi" he said.

Derek frowned, "We'll figure this out Stiles" he said and meant it. "I'm not going to let this happen" he said and slowly helped him up onto his feet. "You think you're okay to travel?" he asked.

Stiles nodded slightly, "Yeah, I think so" he said after a few moments. He let out a slow breath before opening the door and climbing into the jeep with Derek's help. He closed his eyes, and just hoped that he wouldn't be attacked by another fit of pain.

Derek watched him for a moment, waiting for him to actually get in this time before going around to get into the driver's side. Once inside he quickly hit the gas and pulled out onto the road speeding back towards to his loft. "We should try and get a hold of Deaton" he said and looked at Stiles for a moment, not really wanting to take his eyes off him even for a minute.

Stiles nodded slightly, "Yeah, if anyone can figure this out, he can" he said with a small smile and tried to calm his still rapidly beating heart. He couldn't believe that this was happening, but he didn't regret it, not even a little bit. If he had the choice he'd do it all over again.

* * *

Derek helped Stiles out of the jeep and held him close as they made their way up to his loft. Once they were up there he quickly unlocked the door and froze when he saw someone standing in front of the living room window. "

"I hope you don't mind, but I let myself in" Deaton said as he turned around to look at the couple. "I believe you two have gotten yourselves into a bit of trouble" he said.

"How did you…." Stiles asked trailing off as he stared at the mysterious vet.

"How doesn't really matter Stiles" Deaton said and gestured to the couch, "You should probably sit down, this process is very painful" he said.

"Why don't you stop being cryptic and just tell us if you know how to fix it" Derek said, annoyed by the vet already. He did however help Stiles over to the couch and watched him sit down before sitting in front of him on the coffee table. "You feeling okay" he asked him.

Stiles nodded slightly, "At the moment yeah" he said slowly and smiled small before turning his head a bit to look at Deaton, "You got any ideas Doc?" he asked.

Deaton sighed softly, "Yes Stiles I do know how to stop this" he said and walked around the couch to sit next to Derek. "Unfortunately I don't think either of you are going to like the answer" he said.

"What is it?" Stiles asked, curiously wanting to know even if he wouldn't like it.

"Spit it out" Derek said irritably a second later.

Deaton sighed, "It's a sheer force of will" he said and smiled small. "As far as I know only a few have managed to do it" he said. "There are a few remedies that will stop and reverse the process, but it will take me a while to gather all the ingredients." he said with a small frown. "So until then you're going to have to hold it back on your own. It'll be painful and almost impossible, but that's all I have" he said. "But I must tell you. If you turn complete there is no coming back, you'll be like that forever. You have to keep that from happening Stiles"

Stiles frowned, not really sure if he'd be able to do that, "How exactly am I supposed to do that?" he asked

Deaton shook his head slightly, "That I do not know Stiles" he said regrettably. "That's up to you to figure out" he said and stood up slowly.

"Just hurry back with those remedies" Derek said and let out a slow angry breath. He was sure Stiles could make it through this, guy wasn't exactly tough but he was brave and very stubborn. He just hoped that would be enough.

Deaton nodded slightly, "I'll be back as soon as I can" he said and turned to leave.

"Josie said something about twenty four hours. So try and make it before then" Stiles yelled as the vet walked out the door, he wasn't really even sure if he had heard him. "Derek, I don't know if I can do this" he said honestly after a long silence.

Derek forced a smile, "Sure you can, if anyone can do this it's you Stiles" he said. "You can do anything you set your mind too, and I'm not just saying that" he said and took his hand in his. "Just promise me you'll try" he said wanting to know that he wouldn't just give up.

Stiles nodded slightly, "I will" he said with a small smile, "Can't get rid of me that easily" he said and squeezed Derek's hand lightly.

"Good, because I wouldn't want to" Derek said and smiled small before leaning over and kissing Stiles' forehead. Then he stood up and sat on the couch next to Stiles rather than on the coffee table in front of him. "I'll be right here next to you the entire time. We'll do this together" he said.

Stiles nodded slightly and gritted his teeth as the pain came back. He squeezed Derek's hand tightly, and gasped as his ribs shifted and moved under his skin. He closed his eyes tightly and hunched over clutching his chest with his free hand. He tried to keep from screaming, but it quickly got to the point where it was impossible not to.

Stiles jolted forward as his shoulder blades extended and then snapped back into place, only to repeat the process over and over again. The pain quickly moved up his neck as the vertebrae moved in and out of place.

Derek growled and tried taking his pain away, but it wasn't working _Come on work_ , he thought angrily, and looked over Stiles' hoping that it would be over soon. He grimaced when he saw the human's bones shifting under his skin, he couldn't even imagine how painful that could be. "Stile, we're….. you're going to get through this okay? You can do this…." he said and squeezed his hand lightly.

Stiles tried focusing on Derek's voice but it soon got over run by a pounding in his head. A pressure started to form behind his eyes, almost felt as if his eyes were popping out of his head. He clutched his head with his free hand, his fingers roughly moving through his hair, as if that might relieve some of the pain. He thought the pain may never end that it would just be like this until he turned into the ahzi for good.


	21. Chapter Twenty-One: Resisting

**Chapter Twenty-One**

 **Resisting**

 _*Stiles_

Stiles sighed softly as the pain receded for about the hundredth time since they got back to the loft. It's been hours since Deaton left to get the ingredients for the remedies, and there still hasn't been any word. He was starting to get worried, his skin was slowly get a grey tint to it and his eyes had yellow flecks mixed in with the brown.

Stiles shook his head slightly and let out a shaky breath, "I'm okay" he said, though he really wasn't so sure. Though the immense pain was gone, he still ached all over the place. "I can't just sit here Derek. We need to do something?"

Derek sighed softly, "Okay, but what exactly can we do Stiles?" he asked, not really wanting Stiles to move or really do much at the moment.

Stiles shrugged "I don't know, but I hate just sitting here" he said.

"I know you do" Derek said and sighed softly, he hated just sitting here too, this entire thing sucks. "You never should have drank that stuff" he said more to himself then Stiles.

Stiles shook his head slightly, "Stop Derek" he said and looked at the werewolf. "I wasn't lying when I said I love you" he said and smiled small. "Even now knowing what I do I would make the same choice. I would never be able to just sit back and watch you die" he said and sighed softly. "You're not the only who can make sacrifices you know" he said a bit jokingly, though he definitely meant it.

Derek stared at Stiles for a moment before leaning in and kissing him softly, "Doesn't mean I have to like it" he mumbled and smiled small before kissing him once more.

Stiles nodded slightly before kissing him back, "Suppose you're right" he said and leaned into him a bit. The fact that Derek didn't say I love you back was painfully clear, but that was fine, if he wasn't ready then he didn't have to say it. "Let's just not talk about it okay? I don't want to argue, not now" he said.

Derek nodded "Okay," he said and nodded again and wrapped his arms around the human and lightly started rubbing his back, hoping that might somehow relieve the ache, that he knew still remained there.. .

Stiles let out a small sigh and relaxed into Derek, he still hurt all over the place, but the rubbing helped, it helped him relax some how. His comfort, however, was short lived, a pain started radiating from his stomach. His hand slapped over his mouth as he started to gag, "Oh god" he muttered before jolting off of the couch. He ran towards the bathroom, but only managed to fall on his face, which definitely had him swearing.

Stiles quickly got up and stumbled over to the bathroom barely making it in time. He fell next to the toilet and coughed up some black liquid before starting to really throw up. He sat there gagging and coughing until there was nothing let to throw up, and then he was still there just dry heaving, because he just couldn't get it to stop.

"Stiles" Derek in surprise when the human first jumped out of his arms, when he saw him running to the bathroom however he kind of put two and two together. He quickly stood up and hurried after him. He knelt down next to him, near the toilet, he wanted to reach out and touch him, but he stopped himself, thought he might just make it worse.

Stiles screamed as a pain shot through his eyes and they turned yellow and almost looked as if they grew in their sockets. Stiles clutched his head and kind of just rolled up in a ball on the floor as pain started growing everywhere, his body morphing in and out of his normal shape. He focused all his will power on making it stop, on not letting the change take him, he wasn't willing to let go, even if every fiber of his being was telling him too.

Suddenly Stiles' screaming stopped and his eyes rolled back as he started seizing on the bathroom floor. He lost consciousness as his whole body convulsed and shook beyond his control.

Derek panicked, literally having no idea what to do in this situation. "Stile…. Stiles" he said and reached out to touch him, but stopped, again not wanting to make it worse. Though after another second he just said screw it and carefully turned him onto his side. That's what helped Eric that one time if he remember correctly. Thankfully he didn't have to worry about it for very long before the seizing stopped about a minute later.

Derek let out a relieved sigh, "Stiles" he said tentatively, but the human didn't say anything back, and he wasn't moving either didn't even look like he was breathing. "Stiles" he said again and carefully moved him so he was laying on his back.

Stiles jolted forward and took in a lungfull of air.

 _Oh thank god_ Derek thought as he looked over the human, who wasn't looking to human anymore. He hadn't noticed before because he was focused on other things, but he was starting to look more like a Ahzi. His skin was almost the same color as the creature and his ears were starting to look kind of deformed, and his eyes were still yellow.

"No no no no no no" Stiles chanted as he slapped his hands over his ears and started shaking his head. "I won't. I won't. I won't." he repeated.

"Stiles what's wrong?" Derek asked and reached out to touch him, wanting more then anything to make this better. He thought it might have been the seizure bothering him, but he didn't think this would be the reaction.

"I can hear her" Stiles said and looked around a bit frantically, "She's in my head" he said and started mumbling incoherently again.

"Who is?" Derek asked kind of confused.

"Her" Stiles yelled, "Josie" he said and squeezed his eyes closed tightly and continued to shake his head. "She's telling me to do things, horrible things" he said, his voice kind of hoarse. "Things I don't want to do, but do at the same time" he said and looked up at Derek "I'm starting to feel this pull, like I'm suppose to go to her" he said, fresh tears starting to form in his eyes. "I'm scared Derek…. I don't know what to do" he said and shook his head slightly.

"Ignore her Stiles" Derek said, "You're the most stubborn pig headed person I know. If anyone can resist her control it's you" he said and smiled small, trying to be reassuring. "You can do this Stiles" he said and reached out to take his hand. He slowly pulled it away from the side of his face and held it firmly in his hand. "I know you can Stiles" he said.

Stiles scoffed, "You sure you're not betting on the wrong horse?" he asked jokingly with a small laugh before flinching as another set of commands flew through his mind.

Derek decided to ignore the flinch for the time being and nodded slightly "I know I am" he said with a small laugh. "In fact I'm so sure that I'd stack it all on you" he said with a smile.

"Hope you're on good terms with the bookie" Stiles said jokingly with a small laugh before shaking his head slightly. "Seriously Derek, I don't know if I can do this" he said let out a shaking breath. "I-it's consuming me" he said and used his free hand to shakily gesture over his body. "E-even now as I talk to you, I feel it trying to take control, feel her trying to take control" he said with a frown.

Derek smiled, "Very good terms actually, we're best friends" he said jokingly before sobering up at what Stiles had to say next. He sighed softly and studied him for a moment, "I can't even begin to imagine what that must be like, but I know you well enough to know that you can beat this" he said with a small nod. "You expelled the nogitsune from your body, that couldn't have been easy" he said.

Stiles scoffed, "Yeah, after I let him in, in the first place" he said and sighed softly. "A lot of people died because of me Derek" he said with a frown, "What if it does take control, and I hurt someone, or you" he said and looked up at Derek as an idea struck him. "I need you to promise me something" he said, knowing that Derek would hate what he was about to say. "If it gets too far…. if I become dangerous then I need you take care of it….. of me" he said and looked at him pleadingly. "I don't care how you do it, but I need you to make sure no one else gets killed because of me" he said.

Derek frowned, "Stiles you can't ask me to kil-"

"I can, and that's exactly what I'm doing" Stiles said, interrupting him. "Please Derek, if that happens it won't really be me anyway. You heard what Deaton said, there would be no coming back. I just need to know now that I don't ever have to worry about someone dying because of me, because I was to weak to keep it at bay" he said.

Derek wasn't sure if he could actually do that but he nodded anyway, "Okay" he said and squeezed Stiles' hand lightly. "If that's what you want I'll do my best. I'll do what you want." he said.

Stiles nodded slightly, deciding that was good enough for now, "Good" he said and smiled small, though smiling was the last thing he felt like doing at the moment. "Can you uh…. help me up" he asked, since he knew he wouldn't be able to move on his own at the moment. He felt like shit everything hurt and he still felt like he could vomit, even though there was nothing left to throw up.

Derek nodded slightly and slowly stood up himself, then he bent over and carefully picked up the human, not bothering with trying to help him walk. He walked out of the bathroom and over to his bed. He laid him down and sat on the edge of the bed, "Better than the couch" he said, trying to lighten the mood.

Stiles nodded slightly, "Yeah, it is" he said and winked before closing his eyes tightly trying to block out the voices in his head. By now her voice was always there, it was never ending and it was getting hard to resist her commands, even now. He wasn't even completely changed and he was finding it difficult not to give into her. "Derek talk to me" he said and looked up at the werewolf.

"W-What do you want me to say?" Derek asked, his mind suddenly going blank on what to say.

"I don't know, anything so I have something else to concentrate on. So there's something else I can listen to," Stiles said.

"Okay ummmmm" Derek said with a small frown, "I guess I could uh…. tell you about the time I went camping" he said.

"I thought you didn't want to talk about that because that was when… well you know" Stiles said, remembering back to when he asked him about it when they were camping in the woods, which seemed like forever ago now.

Derek nodded slightly, "Yeah it is, but other than that the trip itself wasn't bad" he said with a small smile. "I mean I just don't like talking about how much fun I had that night, when well my family was burning to death" he said and sighed softly. "But I'll make an exception just this once" he said.

Stiles smiled small, "Oh how kind of you" he said and flinched slightly as the pain started up again, though he refused to scream. He wanted to hear Derek's story, and didn't want him to stop talking. He loved hearing the man's voice, even now it calmed him down.

Derek heard Stiles' heart rate pick up, meaning he was in pain again, but he didn't ask about it. He knew that would just make it worse, so instead he just went on with his story, "Okay so uh, a few of my friends and I decided that we wanted to party. So we got Shawn's older brother Jake to buy us some booze, guy definitely over charged us but whatever" he said and sighed softly as he tried to remember more details, it was a long time ago and well the night was kind of overshadowed by something else. "Then we packed our stuff took our current girlfriends and all piled into a truck. I'd brought Kate, but obviously she hadn't stayed there the whole night." he said and shook his head slightly as he looked down at his hands.

"Derek, if you don't want too…." Stiles struggled to get out, his voice strained as he still held back the urge to scream.

Derek shook his head slightly, "No it's okay, I can talk about it" he said and took Stiles's hand back in his. He squeezed it reassuringly before continuing, "We stayed at the same spot you and me did, it was a spot a I found a few times when I was running around wolfed out and I thought it was a nice spot for camping" he said and shrugged slightly. "Once we got there we had the girls set up camp while us guys went out to find stuff to burn for the fire" he said and scoffed slightly. "Once everything like that was all ready we sat around the fire and started drinking, I didn't notice it then but I can see now that Kate was definitely pushing me to drink a lot, I was so wasted that night" he said and chuckled softly. "Some of it is find of a blur, but what I do remember is that me and Luke, my other friend ended up getting dared to skinny dip in the river that was close to the clearing" he said and smiled at the memory. "And well I couldn't back down from the challenge so we made the trip to the river and I stripped out of my clothing before jumping in, Luke of course chickened out but I was to drunk to care" he said with a smile.

Stiles chuckled painfully "Would have liked to see that" he said and forced a smile before going quiet again, in too much pain to talk at the moment.

Derek chuckled, "I sure" he said with a smile, though it quickly faded when he saw how much pain Stiles was in. He resisted the frown that wanted to settle onto his face and went on with the story, "And uh…. when I got out you can probably guess that my ass-whole of friends stole my clothes and ran off" he said and sighed softly as he remember back. "Though again I really didn't care. I was just like, whatever bitch, I'm hot" he said and chuckled a little bit before shaking his head slightly. "Anyway, I ran around naked for a long while before they finally gave me my clothes back, guess they got tired of me singing, 'I'm too sexy for my clothes'' and dancing around the campfire he said, laughing at the memory and the horrified look on his friends faces. "It was a while before I realized Kate left, but apparently she made up an excuse about her parents needing her back home" he said and shrugged slightly. "So I didn't really think much of it and just went back to having fun." he said

Stiles laughed softly, "Wait wait wait back up" he said, barely noticing the pain at the moment as he pictured what Derek said. "You sang I'm too sexy for my clothes and danced around naked in front of your friends?" he asked his voice still kind of strain but not as bad as before.

Derek nodded slightly, "Yeah and you will not believe how long my friends held that over my head for" he said and laughed softly. "I personally think they were just jealous, I mean their girlfriends definitely never looked at me the same way again" he said with a smile.

Stiles scoffed, "Yeah I bet" he said and flinched as the pain momentarily intensified. How he's even kept from scream he doesn't know. "Tell me more" he said and squeezed his eyes closed tightly as he tried fighting off the turn, it was just getting more painful and he was finding it hard not to scream.

Derek frowned as he stared down at Stiles but nodded anyway, "Uh yeah okay" he said and paused a moment as he thought. "After I got dressed we all drank a bit more before deciding to play a game" he said and thought about the details a moment before continuing. "It was kind of just an intense game of hide and go seek" he said with a small smile. "Everyone would hide, and you could hide with someone and go out as far as you'd like. Once you were found you would help look for the other's" he said with a smile. "Since we were completely wasted it always took hours to find everyone again. It was fun, especially when the finding group got really big, we'd just being laughing and screaming, it was awesome" he said. "I don't think any of us actually got any sleep that night. The sun came up before we even stopped running around." he said.

Stiles nodded slightly, "Scott and I have drank in the woods before after Allison broke up with him" he said with a smile. "But then some ass-wholes tried to steal our booze and Scott kind of wolfed out for a moment and broke the bottle" he said with a smile. "And then I'm pretty sure Peter burned em alive" he said.

Derek chuckled "Wow, that's some story you got there" he said.

Stiles scoffed, "Hey buddy, I have other stories. They're just not in the woods" he said, and opened his eyes as the pain slowly eased away. He let out a sigh of relief and smiled at Derek before slowly sitting up and resting up against the headrest. . "You know you sounds like a pretty cool dude….. What happened?" he asked jokingly.

Derek glared at him for a moment before just shaking his head, "Well you seem to like me well enough the way I am now so I must still got it" he said.

"Eh" Stiles said with a smile. "You're mostly just grumpy" he said.

Derek laughed softly, "Yeah okay, if you say so" he said with a smile.

"I do" Stiles said with a small nod and jumped slightly when his phone suddenly started. "God" he muttered and pulled the stupid thing out of his pocket. "It's Scott" he said as he stared at the screen for a moment before answering it. "Hello"


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two: Not Now

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

 **Not Now**

 _*Stiles_

"What the hell is going on over there Stiles" Scott demanded.

"Uh…. nothing?" Stiles lied, because he stilled didn't want his friend involved in all of this. It wasn't that he thought he couldn't handle himself, he knew for a fact that he could. He just wanted to give his friend what he wanted and that was a way out of the crazy supernatural life.

"Don't lie Stiles. Deaton called me and told me everything" Scott said, sounding very irritated. "Why didn't you tell me what was happening there?" he asked.

Stiles sighed, "Because I had it handled, Derek was…. is helping" he said.

"Yeah, cause you and Derek totally get along" Scott said, "You should have called me Stiles. " he said with a sigh.

"Well I didn't, so get over it" Stiles said and looked over at Derek for a moment and smiled small.

Scott sighed, "Stiles I coming out there. Not letting you deal with this alone" he said, kind of assuming that Derek was off doing his own thing.

Stiles sighed, "You don't have to Scott, Derek's here" he said. "He's doing a fine job at taking care of me" he said.

"Yeah, I'm sure" Scott said, not really sure if he believed that.

Stiles rolled his eyes, "He is Scott" he said and sighed softly "If you want to come all the way out here then go ahead but you don't have to. We have it covered" he said.

"I'll be there in an hour" Scott said before hanging up the phone.

Stiles chuckled softly and tossed his phone onto the side table, and sighed softly, "We'll this should fun" he said and scuffed. "Don't really think he's going to like what he sees" he said and looked down at his hands, he barely recognized them as his own. They were completely grey and looked longer and thinner, his nails were starting to look kind of snarly too.

Derek sighed, "Yeah but if Deaton really did tell him everything then he shouldn't be too surprised." he said and shrugged slightly. "I think he'll be okay, he's good at this kind of stuff" he said.

Stiles nodded slightly "Yeah I guess" he said and scooted over a bit, "Now come on handsome lay next to me" he said and wiggled his eyebrows a bit.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Derek asked a bit tentatively as he moved in to lay next to him.

"Very" Stiles said and waited for the werewolf to get comfortable before moving close and leaning into him.

* * *

 _*Stiles_

"Open up Derek" Scott yelled and knocked on the door. He would have just walked in but it was locked, and he wasn't about to break it. Derek would probably kill him, if Scott didn't kill him first.

Stiles chuckled softly and slowly sat up, he'd just got over the third fit of pain since Scott called. "Better go let him in" he said his voice kind of hoarse from screaming, and willing himself not to scream.

Derek nodded slightly and carefully sat up before walking over to the door. He unlocked it before quickly sliding it open, "Hey Scott" he said and stepped aside so he could get in. "Don't over react" he said.

Scott nodded slightly before hurrying inside, he stared at Stiles for a long time trying to find his best friend in the thing sitting on the bed. Sure it was his face, but that was about all he recognized. "What the hell is going" he asked and turned to face Derek. "How could you let this happen?" he demanded. "You should never have let him help when it was just the two of you" he said.

"Yeah and you should have ditched him the second you became a werewolf" Derek snapped angrily. "None of this would have happened if you never let him into all of this in the first place" he said.

Scott scoffed, "At least I never let anything I like this happen before" he snapped.

"Would you two stop" Stiles said and moved to get out of the bed. "It's no one's fault" he said.

Scott just ignored him to focused on Derek at the moment, "You should have been more careful, especially since this isn't the first time he's been hurt on your watch" he said.

"Yeah because no one has ever gotten hurt on your watch before" Derek said. and glared at Scott.

"Not like this" Scott yelled, "I protect my friends" he said.

Stiles groaned before stumbled over to the two werewolves. He pushed himself in-between them and punched Scott as hard as he could, mostly just to get him to shut up. "Oh god" he said and clutched his hand as his knees buckled and he fell to the ground "Think I broke my hand" he grumbled and shook it out though that just made it worse, and then it quickly spread through his body. _Fuck not now_ he growled before looking up at Scott, "Shut up" he snapped and clutched his head as he started hearing Josie's voice in his head. "It's not his fault" he said, his voice strained as he tried not to scream. "It was my choice" he said forcefully. "All of it was my choice" he said.

Derek frowned and knelt down next to him, "Stiles we just went through this okay, it's going to be okay" he said and gently placed his hand on the human's back. "Just focus on something else anything else" he said and continued talking, since it was usually his voice that Stiles decided to focus on.

Scott was unbelievably shocked when he felt Stiles' fist connect with his face, though if he was being honest he got why. He'd overreacted, "You're right. I'm sorry Derek" he said and knelt down next to his friend. "What's going on?" he asked Derek, since Stiles wasn't in the position to answer.

Derek sighed and looked up at Scott, "He's going through the change, it's painful" he said and turned his focus back onto Stiles. "Hey, did I ever tell you about the time Peter and I got high and broke into a zoo" he asked.

Stiles shook his head slightly, "No, not yet" he grunted.

Derek smiled, "Well if you pull through this then I'll make sure to tell you" he said.

"That's not nice" Stiles said forcefully, though that was just because he was having trouble talking.

Derek chuckled, "Yeah well my other incentives didn't exactly work' he said jokingly.

Stiles chuckled painfully "Oh come on, didn't give it a chance" He grunted and squeezed his eyes closed tightly.

Scott looked between Stiles and Derek, guess they were getting along a lot better. He knew they got along better then when they first meet but he didn't think it was quite like this.. He rubbed his cheek absentmindedly, "So uh….. what's the plan?" he asked.

Derek looked up at Scott, "We wait for Deaton to come with the remedy and then we go after Josie and kill her" he said.

"You can't kill her Derek" Scott said, "Let the police do their job. Take her down and hand her over to em" he said.

"You're kidding right" Derek said and studied Scott for a moment. "She's killed dozens of people, and look at what she did to Stiles" he said.

"Doesn't matter, you still can't just kill her Derek" Scott said adamantly.

"Would you two stop fighting" Stiles grunted in pain. Though luckily a few moments later he was able to let out a relieved breath. "Scott we didn't ask for your help so don't come in acting like you're in charge" he said and slowly rolled onto his back with a grunt. "Derek we don't have to kill her unless it's absolutely necessary" he said and closed his eyes. "Now could one of you ass-wholes help me up" he said and held up his hand.

Scott looked at Stiles' morphed hand and just couldn't get himself to actually touch him.

Derek smiled and nodded slightly before standing up. He carefully took Stiles' hand in his and slowly helped him up onto his feet before leading him towards the bed.

Scott sighed softly and stood up, "How are you going to find her" he asked and watched the two of them for a moment.

"Won't have to" Stiles said, "She'll find us" he said with a small smile. "She always does" he mumbled.

Scott nodded slightly, "Okay then, how do you plan to stop her?" he asked.

Derek shrugged slightly "Don't know yet. The Ahzi is pretty much impossible to kill, so it'll be easier to just go after her" he said "Only probably is she doesn't go anywhere without it" he said and looked back at Stiles. "So I guess it's a good thing you came, you can take care of it while I go after her" he said.

Scott nodded slightly, "Uh yeah, okay" he said.

"No No!" Stiles yelled and closed his eyes tightly before slapping his hands over his ears. "It's getting louder" he said and started shaking his head, trying to get her out of his head.

"What's wrong?" Scott asked.

"She's in his head" Derek informed him before putting his focus on Stiles, and started talking to him. Saying anything just so he had something else to focus on.

Josie slide the door open, "Yeah and he's about to be mine" she said with a wicked smile. "Your twenty-four hours are up Stiles, time to join the dark side" she said


	23. Chapter Twenty-Three: Fight it

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

 **Fight it**

 _*Derek_

Derek growled, "Get out of here Josie" He carefully sat Stiles down on the bed and turned around to glare at her. His eyes turned blue as his face morphed "Or I'll kill you" he growled.

"I don't know Derek haven't been able to do that yet" Josie said with a smirk, and chuckled softly before morphing as well. She turned to look at Scott her red eyes studying him. "Hey Scott, heard lots about you" she said and tilted her slowly, "Nice to finally meet you" she said. "But unfortunately you being here is just getting in my way" she said and a moment later the ahzi jumped down from the ceiling and landed next to her. "I don't have a grudge against you Scott, why not just leave while you can" she said with a smile.

"No I think i'm good where I am" Scott said and roared as he morphed into a werewolf, his eyes turning just as red as hers.

"Suite yourself" Josie said and turned to the ahzi. "Kill him" she said before turning her attention to the human. "Hey Stiles how ya doing?" she asked with a small cold laugh.

"Great thanks for asking?" Stiles said sarcastically.

Derek growled "Shut up, leave him out of it" he said and ran at her.

Josie sighed softly and dodged his attempts before hitting him back. She grabbed onto his shirt and picked him up before slamming him into the ground. "Just a moment, trying to talk to Stiles" she said and tsked before slapping a hand over his mouth so he couldn't talk, while the other held him in place, despite his struggling, didn't help that she was also sitting on his chest with her knees digging into his biceps.

Josie looked up at Stiles "Why don't you just stop fighting it Stiles. All the pain you're feeling will go away. You'll be free" she said and smiled small as she studied him. "All that guilt, because of Allison….. it'll be gone too you know" she said. "Come on Stiles, you know you want too. Just let it, let it consume you and you won't feel anything ever again." she said.

Stiles shook his head slightly "Never" he said and gritted his teeth as the pain racked his body again. He slid off the bed and landed on his knees before bending over clutching his head. "Get out of my head" he yelled loudly.

"Sorry can't do that Stiles" Josie said and closed her eyes for a moment, focusing almost all her energy on getting him to follow her commands. "Come on Stiles just do it" she said before turning her attention to Derek and sighed. "Just you and me this time Derek" she said with a cold grin before rolling off of him and jumping up to her feet ready to fight him. "Or should I say you and him" she said and pointed at Stiles, who must have lost the mental battle because he wasn't writhing on the floor anymore.

Stiles struggled to stand up, or more like struggled not to stand up. His body was moving against his will. He tried stopping it with all his might, but he just couldn't get himself to, no matter what his limbs just wouldn't listen to his commands.

"Time to have a little fun" Josie said and stepped out of the way. "Stiles why don't you go ahead and kill Derek for me." she said and stood back to watch, her eyes drifting off to see how the ahzi was holding up against Scott. It was losing, but at the moment she really didn't care. The Stiles and and Derek show was much more interesting.

Derek watched Stiles and shook his head slightly, "Stiles stop, come on you can fight her. You're stronger than her" he said.

Stiles roared, baring teeth that were no longer his, but ones that belong to a Ahzi. "I can't stop" he hissed and roared once more before running at Derek.

Derek growled, mad at the situation not Stiles, "Come on Stiles fight" he yelled, but it was too late. Stiles jumped ontop of him, making them both crash down onto the floor. He barely had enough time to get his bearings before he felt claws dig into his chest. "Stiles please" he said and stared up at him, looking into eyes that no longer belonged to his boyfriend. They were to dark, too cold to ever belong to Stiles. The change wasn't complete yet though, so he knew that meant Stiles had to be in there somewhere yet. "Come on Stiles, just listen to my voice. This isn't you. Fight it, for just a little longer fight it" he said, and bit his lip slightly. "I didn't say it before, maybe because I thought it would be worst if I lost you or something I don't know. But I love you Stiles. I love you" he said.

Stiles' movements grew more hesitant and his eyes softened for a moment as he started down at the werewolf. He shook his head, "I don't want to do this" he sobbed. "I'm sorry.."

"Kill him" Josie yelled, and a moment later the hesitation was gone, as much as he didn't want to as much as he fought against it Stiles was going to hurt Derek.

"Sorry not just yet" Deaton said as he walked into the room. He tossed a handful of mountain ash at Josie smiling as it formed a perfect circle around her.

Josie growled loudly and angrily banged on the force field that kept her from leaving the damned circle. "Oh I'm really going to enjoy ripping you apart Deaton" she growled.

Deaton smiled, "Yes I'm sure you will" he said and turned his attention to Stiles and Derek. "Derek pin him down." he said and hurried over. "You only have a few minutes otherwise it'll be too late. The remedies won't work" he said.

"I don't want to hurt him" Derek grunted as he tried to stop Stiles' assault without hurting him, but it wasn't working honestly he was starting to feel weaker.

"Don't worry about it. Whatever you do will heal. If he turns he'll be gone forever. Make a choice. Now!" he insisted.

Derek hated it but the vet was right, so with the last bit of strength he had left he forcefully shoved Stiles off of him. He jumped to his feet as quickly as he could and ran over to hold him down, but Stiles was quicker.

Stiles jumped up onto his feet and hissed, before running at Derek, quickly slashing out with his claws trying to rip him apart.

"Stiles stop" He growled and held him back, though that didn't keep him from slashing at him with his clothes. "Please Stiles it'll only take a second. Just fight one second longer" he said, but didn't get anything in return. He swore in frustration before shoving him away again. This time he moved quicker and ran over to him and grabbed him before picking him up and slamming him into the ground. "Hurry up Doc" he said as he struggled to hold him down. "Don't know how much longer I can hold him" he said, the once weak human was so much stronger now. Stronger than even him.

Deaton ran over to the two of them and quickly popped the top off the bottle before grabbing Stiles' chin. He head his head as still as he could before pouring it into his mouth and then slapping his hand over it. He held it there until he was sure he swallowed, then he just let him go and backed away. "Let him go Derek" he said and looked over Stiles for a moment. "And don't worry I think he'll be okay" he said and turned to face Josie. "Now what to do with you" he said and walked over to her.

"Just kill me and get it over with" Josie said and rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"We're not killing her" Scott said and he shoved the limp body of the ahzi off of him and slowly pushing himself off the ground. Somehow during the fight he had managed to snap the things neck. Wasn't sure if it was actually dead though, so did something he really didn't want to do. He bent over and dug his claws into his neck and ripped out his throat, literally.

Derek rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything he kept his attention on Stiles. He was all he really cared about at the moment.

Stiles went still after the remedy ran down his throat and he coughed some of it up. He stared wide eyed up at the ceiling for a long time before he started gagging. He quickly rolled over and held himself up on his knees before he started throwing up a disgusting black liquid. The worst part came next though, a pain worse than ever before shot through every limb of his body and it just continued to intensify until he was screaming, until his voice was too hoarse for him to scream.

"What's happening Doc" Derek asked a bit frantically as the pain only seemed to get worse.

Deaton looked back at Stiles, concern clear in his eyes, "He's changing back" he said with a frown. "I'm afraid it's a painful process" he said and walked over to them. "But it's working. He isn't gray anymore" he said and smiled small. "I just hope he's strong enough to survive the process" he said grimly.

"What do you mean strong enough, thought you said he'd be fine" Derek snapped, talking loud enough to be heard over Stiles' hoarse screaming. Though he was holding onto him, trying to comfort him even if it really wasn't possible.

Deaton sighed softly, "Don't worry about it Derek, I'm sure he'll be fine. Just try and make him as comfortable as possible" he said and nodded slightly before standing up and walking back over to Josie.

Josie smiled as she stared at Stiles, she liked seeing the pain written all over Derek's face at seeing his lover like that. Wasn't really the time though so she turned her attention back on the vet. "So what's the plan Deaton. Gonna bore me to death with one of your cryptic lectures" she asked.

Deaton smiled, "No, I have a much better place in mind for you" he said and looked over at Scott. "What do you think about the Echin house Scott? Seem like a suitable place for her" he asked.'

Scott nodded slightly "Yeah seems like a good place for her to me" he said.

Derek jumped to his feet momentarily leaving Stiles' side, "Like hell" he growled. "She deserves a hell of a lot worse than Echin house" he growled angrily. "Neither of you were around so it's not your call. She's mine, and I'm going to kill her" he said and glared at Josie.

"Derek you can't kill her. It's not right" Scott said and shook his head slightly. "Deaton is right should just let her rot in Echin house"

"Not happening" Derek said and turned to Deaton, "break the line" he said.

Deaton sighed softly, "As much as I would love to watch you kill this young lady I can't let you do that Derek." he said with another sigh. "The rules of the ahzi is that if you kill the master then the ahzi dies as well" he said.

"So what does that matter. Scott already took care of it" Derek said, getting more annoyed by the minute.

Deaton nodded slightly, "Yes but Stiles still technically has ahzi blood in his system and he always will" he said. "Whether you like it or not they will always be connected. If you kill Josie you'll be killing Stiles too" he said.

"Are you sure" Derek asked and glared at Josie for a moment before turning his gaze back to the vet.

"I can't be sure, but is it really something you're willing to risk?" Deaton asked.

Josie laughed softly, "That's right Der Der" she said sweetly, calling him by the pet name she gave him when they were dating all those years ago. "Kill me and you kill your little boyfriend too" she said with a smirk.

"Fine" Derek growled and walked back over to Stiles, trying to relinquish his anger but failing terribly, and seeing Stiles in so much pain definitely wasn't helping.

"Wait what" Scott said looking between Derek and Josie, "What the hell does she mean by boyfriend" he asked.

Derek ignored the question and just cradled Stiles in his arms, trying to do and say anything to help comfort him, to make the process less painful.

* * *

 _~Two days later~_

 _*Stiles_

Stiles stared down at Derek smiling "So what are we going to do now?" he asked thoughtfully. "We just finished getting Josie settled, and there isn't anything going on in Beacon Hills" he said.

Derek shrugged, "I don't know. I'm sure we'll find something to do" he said with a smile and leaned up to kiss him softly."Thinking of a few things already" he said and rolled them over so he was on top. He trailed his hands down Stiles' sides as he places soft kisses on Stiles' neck.

Stiles smiled happily, "As fun as this is we can't do it all the time" he said.

Derek smirked, "Sure we can" he said and smashed his lips against Stiles' before he could open his big mouth again. He brought his hand up to his cheek and caressed it softly as he deepened the kiss and moved his body against Stiles'

 _The End_


End file.
